Video: Al Teller - Former head of CBS, Columbia, and MCA Records

For those of you who care at all about the actual business of music, as well as the art of music, which I suppose mightn't be that many of you, this makes for absolutely fascinating viewing/listening. As much as anything the candid nature of the chat, as well as the fact that it comes from an insider make this compelling.  Interesting, too, to hear that the music business was struggling massively up until the advent of the CD.  Just as it has been since. It's also interesting that he pinpoints mass exposure on commercial radio as [...]

Al Teller ran CBS, Columbia and MCA Records, but in this interview with Ian Rogers on This Week In Music , he shares a visionary view of where the music industry is headed. It starts as a history lesson, but things get interesting around 17:30. Topics include how (sadly) mass-saturation radio play is still the most powerful way to connect with fans, and at 20:45 Rogers asks: “It seems that the music industry always relies on entities that don’t actually care about the future of music ( Wal-Mart, iTunes )… Do you share that [...]