Mobile Entertainment Live! - Celebrity Q&A with Quincy Jones
4 November 2007He’s a record producer, film composer, trumpeter, musical arranger and has won more than seven Grammy Awards. He produced two of the top-selling records of all time (”Thriller” by Michael Jackson and the 1980s charity hit “We Are the World”) and has worked with the likes of Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Stephen Spielberg and Ella Fitzgerald. He has scored for numerous television and film productions including “The Color Purple,” “In Cold Blood,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Roots,” “Sanford and Son” and “The Bill Cosby Show.” Speaking with moderator and Billboard’s executive editor/associate publisher Tamara Conniff, American icon Quincy Jones highlighted the Mobile Entertainment Live! Show during the “Celebrity Q&A,” providing insight on the changing face of the music entertainment industry.
When asked about the current situation of music, Jones said, “This is the best and worst of times. When you go through these times, there are a lot of bad things that happen, but there’s a lot of room for change.” As far as what he predicts will be the future business model for music, Jones said that he really doesn’t know, but that it will probably emerge from Silicon Valley or some free-thinking types elsewhere. However, he did warn that starting a war with the consumer is only asking for trouble. “You have to remind yourself whom you’re dealing with,” said Jones, adding that rock started as a rebellion tool and is now being used to rebel against labels.
Jones said that even though he believes that music over handsets will become increasingly popular, he’s not so sure about how television and film will resonate with viewers of the small screen. When asked if he would ever think about producing a film for mobile devices, he said, “I never think about it like that, you think about content first.” Concluding with the question of how music is different now for people like his son (Quincy Jones III, who is also a notable hip-hop producer) than it was for him, Jones jovially replied, “it’s less paper.”
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