[Dixielandjazz] Clive Davis Interview about The Music Industry.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Clive Davis is the man behind the Grammys. His party at the Beverly  
Hilton the night before the show is legendary. Everyone who is anyone  
is there. Here's what he had to say about the music industry during an  
interview with the NY TIMES.

Q. Both the N.Y.U. program and this theater are about your  
contributions to the music industry, which at this point is in such a  
bad state. What do you think is the future for the industry?

A.  I start with the proposition: Is the underlying subject vital,  
relevant, still a key part of people’s lives? What’s the case here is  
that the transition to digital is not moving as fast as the attrition  
of retail outlets for the CD. But you can certainly see the interest  
in music. Ten years ago there were no single sales. Now you see that  
not only does a hit single sell 1 million copies, but a real big hit  
single sells 4 million, 5 million, some sell over 6 million.

I’m from the optimistic school that this is a temporary transition.  
And I do very much believe in the future of contemporary music, and  
that there will be a healthy music industry.




Q. Do you think the Grammys are more important at a time when the  
music industry is suffering? That there’s a big splashy event to call  
attention to its stars?

A. I don’t think so. I think the Grammys are still what it has been:  
peer recognition for the best records or songs of the year. I don’t  
think that it’s less or more important, frankly, any more than the  
party that I throw the night before the Grammys is less or more  
important.


Q. What has to happen in the next 5 or 10 years to turn the industry  
around, so that all the excitement in the culture for music can feed a  
healthy business?

A. What I do find challenging is that radio is more restrictive these  
days, in changing Top 40 to rhythm, almost totally and exclusively.  
It’s fine to have dance music, it’s fine to have rhythmic music. But  
we must have our troubadours. We must have our poet laureates. We must  
have our new Dylans and new Springsteens. We must have our major rock  
groups exposed.

We need artists. If you just program dance music, that will lead to  
just buying a record. Because there’s not the Who behind the record,  
there’s not Pink Floyd behind the record, there’s not the Grateful  
Dead behind the record. There’s a dance hit.

I’m proud from my perspective that Arista Records, which I started in  
1975, whether it was the 15th anniversary or the 25th anniversary  
network TV special, we had everybody, whether the traditional media or  
the rock-oriented critics would like it. If it was country we had Alan  
Jackson and Brooks & Dunn. If it was hip-hop there was Bad Boy, there  
was OutKast from LaFace, there was Biggie and Mase and Puffy. In R&B,  
there was Whitney and Aretha. They were all headliners, whether or not  
you like Barry Manilow or Kenny G.