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 solid apart within the trendy music trade.

Rodgers – who has additionally loved nice success as a report producer and co-founder of the band Stylish – just lately spoke in entrance of the U.Okay.’s Home of Commons choose committee investigating the music streaming financial system. Although he described streaming as “wonderful” given its potential to unfold music to listeners world wide, he cautioned that insufficient artist funds “has modified issues significantly – and never for the higher.”

“I’m 71 years previous, I’ve been doing this for 50 years of my life,” Rodgers famous. “In 50 years, you’ll have thought with the appearance of all the brand new applied sciences, individuals like me would have a significantly better life, issues can be simpler, we’d all revenue collectively, and that’s not the case. There’s one thing dreadfully unsuitable with that.”

Why Nile Rodgers Believes David Bowie Would Fail in At the moment’s Business

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

READ MORE: David Bowie Albums Ranked Worst to Greatest

Bowie, Rodgers identified, struggled commercially exterior of the U.Okay. within the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He got here roaring again with 1983’s Let’s Dance, which Rodgers co-produced.

“[The label] gave him all that point to attempt to make a success, he known as me up and we made [Let’s Dance],” Rodgers recalled. “They took on this monetary accountability and they’d carry the artists they believed in that in some unspecified time in the future in time would lastly break. These days are really over.”