It’s a popular thought game: Which superstars of the past decades would still be similarly successful today in the maelstrom of digital exploitation if they had to start over?
For Nile Rodgers it is clear that David Bowie would not become a superstar again during this time. The guitarist and producer appeared at the House of Commons in London on Tuesday (December 12) to give evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
The committee examines composers’ and songwriters’ experiences with financial compensation and interviewed Rodgers about how streaming has changed his experience in the music industry. He finds streaming itself to be an “amazing thing,” but the business associated with it is “murderous” for musicians.
Nile Rodgers: The streaming music business is wrong
Rodgers said it “changed things significantly – and not for the better.” Reflecting on his own career in the business, which has spanned more than 50 years, the musician said: “You would have thought that with the advent of all the new technologies, people like me would have a much better life, that things would be easier, that we would all benefit together, but that is not the case. There is something terribly wrong with that.”
Later in the interview, Rodgers also and particularly referred to David Bowie when discussing the role of record labels. In the 80s he worked with the singer on his successful album “Let’s Dance”. At that time, however, Bowie had to pay a lot out of his own pocket; his label RCA had “dropped” him after “Scary Monsters” (1980). But he would not have been able to achieve this position if there had not been enough support beforehand. Rodgers: “The record companies took financial responsibility and supported the artists they believed in and who eventually made a breakthrough. Those days really are over.”
Spotify recently heated up the minds of many artists who also earn their money through streaming, because in the future all pieces that do not achieve more than 1000 streams per year will no longer be paid for.