"The internet is a slowly but surely destructive thing in all ways."

[Miles Archer]

Don’t expect to hear a new full-length album from Roger Daltrey or the Who anytime soon. Daltrey scoffed at the idea of releasing new music during a recent interview with Rolling Stone, admitting that although he and his fellow Who survivor Pete Townshend have “talked about” making another album, he no longer sees the point.

“There’s no record industry anymore. Why would I make a record?” Daltrey wondered. “I would have to pay to make a record. There’s no royalties, so I can’t see that ever happening. There’s no record business. How do you get the money to make the records? I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to pay money to give my music away free. I can’t afford to do that. I’ve got other things I could waste the money on.”

Obviously, Daltrey isn’t opposed to giving things away — as evidenced by the fact that he was speaking with Rolling Stone about a benefit concert for his and Townshend’s Teen Cancer America organization — but there’s a difference between charity and stealing, he says. As far as Daltrey’s concerned, the advent of the internet has led to the wholesale theft of the entire music business.

“The way the internet has come about has been the biggest robbery in history, like musicians should work for nothing,” he argued. “You get paid for streaming, my ass. There’s no control. Musicians are getting robbed every day. And now it’s creeping into film and television, everything now. You notice, the internet is a slowly but surely destructive thing in all ways. I don’t think it’s improved people’s lives. It’s just made them do more work and feel like they’re wanted a bit more, but it’s all bollocks.”

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/roger-daltrey-the-who-new-music/

[Miles Archer]

5. Dick's Picks / Road Trips / Dave's Picks / MASSIVE "Europe 72" and other box sets...

...the Dead's audience lines up to purchase all of these. They issue them in limited editions, most are sold out before the actual date they ship.

So you are 100% spot-on with your observations.

Napster / Bearshare / Limewire basically grew out of a buying public sick and tired of going to Tower Records and paying $20 for a CD with one or two songs and a sprinkling of filler.

These days it's streaming, torrents and Usenet, but I think most music fans will still pay for legal copies of quality music. It's just that the trust level has eroded. People want to hear it first. There will always be people who just want to steal a copy for free, but I don't think that represents a true fan base at all.

[onehandle]

2. If Entwistle and Moon were still alive, there would be new albums.

But I digress...

Labels are now making more from streaming, than album releases.

But all artists are being robbed by Google's YouTube. I cannot understand how Google hasn't been sued out of existence.

[braddy]

3. Is he saying that you can't make a living of $50,000 or $100,000 in music anymore,

or that you can't make 10s of millions as easily?

[Brickbat]

4. Pretty sure the Lifehouse Chronicles already addressed this.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. If you want the big money, you have to tour.

Most of the musicians I know (and you have heard of them) have made inconsequentially little from streaming and downloads. They have to tour like it's a regular job.

[jberryhill]

8. You mean... Actually performing music?

Instead of laying down tracks and having them assembled in the studio?

What is the point of that?