Comments on: Hey Obama: Reboot the music industry!

If we can bail out the auto industry and spend at least a trillion dollars to save the financial system and reinvest in infrastructure, surely we could spare a dime for the music biz.

[Nicholas Buenk]

Radio is no longer relevant. We should be talking more about things such as music videos on youtube, musical podcasts, internet radio.

[Thomas, David]

The music industry doesn't need a bail out because it is enduring (refusing) a state of change. What's to bail out anyways, seriously. The creators of art, and music will find avenues, it IS the labels who have been, and continue to be the biggest hinderance to these new avenues.

[mmichaels]

I can't stand communism. It's not whether the music industry deserves bailing out or "rebooting", it's the fact that we'd seriously ask for it that makes it even scarier. How about Obama bails out musicians who agree to approve a proportion of state-approved songs? Why not sacrifice a little freedom of speech for some quick bucks? The auto industry must adhere to certain government regulations. The banking industry must do so as well. Maybe a bailout can be based on a few government regulations as well.

[LEDGUY]

Obviously, the majority of these comments are from people who DO NOT earn their income based on the legal sale of Music. I have been a musician my entire life, and my wife has been in the record business since she left high school 20 years ago. I might have a slightly different perspective.

While I would not suggest the government get involved in every failing business, I understand where the writer is coming from. To simply expect the status quo to sustain the production of good quality music is not the answer. And to suggest record companies are big useless enterprises with no reason for existence, other than to fly around in leer jets wasting money - is silly. My wife works very hard and has ALWAYS been under paid compared to other industries. It's truly an industry filled with incredibly passionate people who are in the industry not because of the money, or the jets or the fame - but their passion for music. Now, these same passionate people are losing their jobs - and finding that after slaving to the record industry for many years, they've got no place to go and must change industries altogether.

If the auto industry suffered the equivalent of Napster and other P2P services, where companies who sold cars were considered evil, and those who illegally "shared" or "Stole" cars were pioneers who should be allowed to change the world, the car biz would be in a whole lot more trouble than they are today and any bailout would not be sufficient to stop the tailspin. Yet record companies should just belly up, and get their business in shape or die - right?

I am not an advocate of every business standing in the government food line simply because they can't run a profitable business - however, the record industry is certainly one who's circumstances are very dire. Fools who suggest you don't need these companies - or the industry as a whole, and that you can easily buy the music from the artist themselves - well... no different than any other industry. Take away Marketing and Distribution - and I think you'll see a lack of any sort of creative music being made.

Just my opinions based on living it at the moment.

[Pala98]

Hmmm...... music industry or auto industry, music industry or jobs, music industry or national economy, music industry or ending the war in Iraq. Yeah, I get it now.

[HighwayHome]

By George, I think you're onto something here! Clear Channel has destroyed the marketing of music by playing the same candy ass garbage on all of their nationwide stations. Thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Clear Channel was permitted to own a ******** of radio stations, polluting the airwaves with their toxic sludge coast to coast. Clear Channel head honcho is chummy chum with the Bush clan. Need I say more?

Your idea to help out the music industry is complete rubbish for the following reasons.

#1 Clear Channel is a perfect example of how the consumer and the industry gets screwed when politicians and business leaders collude to control media and discourage diversity.

#2 What country are you living in? The American Government doesn't give a rat's ass about cultural progress. Slashing the education and arts budgets are what they do best.

#3 With your idea, Government subsidies will only be given to artists and establishments who play "Patriotic" non-threatening music, thus increasing censorship and stifling creativity.

In summary, throwing money into a rotten system, only creates more waste and corruption. Hiding behind the illusion that it is an honorable thing to do is being misinformed, to say the least.

[Nicholas Buenk]

LEDGUY, the car industry has actually suffered a similar situation. The industry has been hit 2 fold, by rising oil prices and greater difficulty for consumers to obtain a loan.
While American companies have just been making bigger cars, Toyota has been developing electric technology and fuel efficiency, and they are in a much better situation. Toyota had the foresight to see rising oil costs and climate change concerns would eventually impact the car industry and bet a lot of R&D resources on this.
You innovate and adapt or die. The car companies and record companies worthy of preservation will figure out a way to survive on their own.

[zwaving]

Predictably everyone is lining up to the trough for their piece of pork. The sight of incompetency and greed being rewarded with mega dollars while no retribution of the guilty is only perpetuating the ills that brought us to this precipace in the first place.
Instead of clamoring for more dollars from the peoples treasury, we should be screaming in protest that the Corrupt financier and political stoogies he supported as long as they complied, are getting off scot free. They are still living in their penthouses on Park Ave and their yaghts do not have a for sale sign on them in West Palm Beach. Therein lies the problem.
If the Government is looking to replace consumer confidence, they need to clean up and clean out the corupt and corrupted from the board rooms and legislative assemblies wherein they reside. They should not, as they are, contract to rebuild from this disaster with the architects of this disaster.
Unfortunately, this will not happen as too many already have figured out a way to benefit from the peril in which we have been placed. One thing is for sure. Those who had nothing to do with this economic mess but are suffering, will continue to do so, while those who with personal greed and averice watched as the economy imploded, will glean from it what they can and emerge relatively unscathed but prepared to start the same snowball at any given time they decide to do so.
Welcome to reality as you hopefully stick out your hand waiting for your piece of cake because you told someone you had no bread.