David Geffen on Entering Today’s Music Industry

egendary, record executive David Geffen is not feeling today’s music industry at all as he revealed his true feelings at a press conference for a PBS special about his life. Asked his thoughts about the opportunities and challenges of entering the music business as a producer or executive today, he deadpanned: “I’d kill myself.” And it’s no easier to break in as an artist now, he notes, attributing the difficulties to the absence of Top 40 radio and an outlet like MTV to air music videos on a loop. “You need repetition,” he said of what he describes as a crucial element of discovery. “You need to be able to hear things a lot.”