Nile Rodgers Says David Bowie Would Be Ignored by Labels Today

David Bowie’s former collaborator Nile Rodgers believes that the rock legend would have been forged apart within the trendy music trade.

Rodgers – who has additionally loved nice success as a file producer and co-founder of the band Chic – not too long ago spoke in entrance of the U.Ok.’s House of Commons choose committee investigating the music streaming economic system. Though he described streaming as “amazing” given its means to unfold music to listeners all over the world, he cautioned that insufficient artist funds “has changed things considerably – and not for the better.”

“I’m 71 years old, I’ve been doing this for 50 years of my life,” Rodgers famous. “In 50 years, you would have thought with the advent of all the new technologies, people like me would have a much better life, things would be easier, we’d all profit together, and that’s not the case. There’s something dreadfully wrong with that.”

Why Nile Rodgers Believes David Bowie Would Fail in Today’s Industry

Rodgers went on to elucidate how the streaming trade’s enterprise practices influence music past {dollars} and cents. Record labels, he claimed, are much less more likely to nurture artists today as a result of they’re extra focussed on discovering fast viral hits.

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Bowie, Rodgers identified, struggled commercially outdoors of the U.Ok. within the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He came roaring back with 1983’s Let’s Dance, which Rodgers co-produced.

“[The label] gave him all that time to try and make a hit, he called me up and we made [Let’s Dance],” Rodgers recalled. “They took on this financial responsibility and they would carry the artists they believed in that at some point in time would finally break. Those days are truly over.”