Terry Ellis

The Music Industry – yesterday and today.

In the latter part of the last century, the grandson of a coalminer from the north-east corner of England became one of the United States most successful music industry entrepreneurs ever.

Could it happen today?

How does the music industry actually work – is it all sex, drugs and rock n’roll?

Or is that really only one narrow, often sensationalized part of a much more complex, business-driven ecosystem?

In the last sixty years, pop and rock music has traveled from being a trendsetter in popular culture to the sad caricature of itself that we see today.

How did that happen?

Before the year 2000, record companies were the driving force behind the development of music and artists, today they are irrelevant.

Why?