Roger Waters: Silicon Valley has taken over the music industry

Roger Waters: Silicon Valley has taken over the music industry

Roger Waters discussed his dissatisfaction with the current state of the music industry and the effect of the tech industry boom on songwriters and artists in an interview with The Sunday Times

The Pink Floyd bassist stated:

"I feel enormously privileged to have been born in 1943 and not 1983, Waters said, continuing, "To have been around when there was a music business and the takeover by Silicon Valley hadn't happened, and in consequence, you could still make a living writing and recording songs and playing them to people."

Waters did not specify which companies exactly are responsible for this shift in the fortunes of the music business, his explicit reference to Silicon Valley could lead one to think he is referring to Apple (with the iTunes Store) and Google (with YouTube), but it may also be a generalisation to include all recent tech developments that did not originate in the vicinity of the Valley at all (including companies like Deezer and Spotify).  

Waters also stated:

"When this gallery of rogues and thieves had not yet injected themselves between the people who aspire to be creative and their potential audience and steal every fucking cent anybody ever made."

His sentiments echo those expressed many times by the 'legends' of pop and rock music, but even though the decline in recorded music sales is unquestionable one also has to wonder whether an element of nostalgia is playing a part in these statements.

It could be easily argued that the ‘old’ music industry had more than its fair share of rogues, thieves and middle men and there are hundreds of music industry horror stories to prove it. In addition the stars bemoaning the end of the 'old' music industry are often also the ones who most benefitted from that model by being some of the most popular artists on the planet. 

Are artists earning less money than they used to from recorded music? Certainly. At the same time more artists than ever have the opportunity to have their music heard and to break down territorial barriers without the need for the well-oiled distribution machine of major labels. 

Technology enabled artists to be more aware than ever, encouraging them to demand transparency: the fast growth of companies that aim to provide that transparency such as Kobalt and Audiam means that the rest of the industry is going to have to get its act together and provide it.

Waters is not wrong: technology has had an incredibly disruptive effect on the old model, but today it is possible to take a much more optimistic view on the role technology can play in providing artists with more control over their music and their future than they ever had.

(Andrea Leonelli)