Rick Wakeman Says He Knows How to Save the Music Industry

Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman said the record industry could be saved with remarkably little effort, and explained how he thought it could be done.

In a recent interview with Rick Beato (video below), the keyboard icon argued that business operators with no understanding of music had missed a key part of selling products to people – the sense of a community experience.

He argued that it had been a mistake to focus on trying to sell music via online physical and digital services, which execs liked because it maximized profits while minimizing effort. He suggested that, if the industry was still staffed by people with an interest in music – as he believed it had been in the past – they'd understand how easy it would be to sell more records.

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“That's taken away the great record shops,” Wakeman said. “Even up until 20 or 30 years ago, you'd go into a record store [to see] thousands of records. You'd be going through them, trying to find something, and somebody next to you would go, 'Oh, have you seen the news? Seen the new Jethro Tull album?' People would talk. And then you'd go back to your friends and talk about the great music you'd found. It was passed on from person to person.”

He continued: “They've taken that away. There's no interaction now between people buying records… What do you do when you go online? You get what you were looking for. [But if] you go into a record store, I guarantee you'll come out with maybe what you're looking for, but something else as well – and they've taken that away.”

How Rick Wakeman Would Save the Record Industry

Wakeman went on to offer his solution, citing the era of Tower Records but arguing for an updated version. “So, yes, you've got vinyl; you've got new CDs. You've also got old CDs and old vinyl, so you can do an exchange. And if you want to do a download, then you've got your computer sections. And also – please God – bring back listening booths; and then have a whole coffee shop area, where people sit down with people they don't know.”

The crux of his argument, he summarized, was interaction. “It's what music is all about. And I don't think it would be that difficult to do that. You just need a couple of record companies that would go, 'I can see that.'

“It would help to bring back the different ways you can have music, because, at the moment, the record industry just thinks, 'Streaming.' And I think the industry, at this present moment in time, isn't a music industry – but it's not too late to bring it back.”

Watch Rick Wakeman's Interview