Tony Visconti: “The next David Bowie lives…”

Today at SXSW in Austin, Texas, musician and frequent David Bowie collaborator, Tony Visconti, delivered a keynote speech in which he spoke about the landscape of the modern music industry and the challenges young (potentially great) artists are facing nowadays.

Explained Visconti: “There are great people all around us – the next David Bowie lives somewhere in the world, the next Beatles, the next Springsteen but they’re not getting a shot, they’re not being financed.”

The Blackstar producer also stated how record sales are not what they should be, before blaming the music industry for not being focused on pushing substance over style.

“Back in the ’70s Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors sold between 14 and 16 million [copies.] Since then the world’s population has nearly doubled to close to 8 billion and last year Taylor Swift sold 12 million,” said Visconti. “With the population doubling how come we can’t sell records? The record labels now are not giving you quality, that’s why you’re disenchanted, that’s why you don’t buy records.

He continued: “I’m reaching out to the top artists of today. Don’t pander to the the illusion of commercialism – even the biggest hits of today’s sales pale by comparison of the sales of past decades. Do what you fucking want to do, not what you think you have to do.”

Preach!