RockPages.gr has issued an interview with metal mastermind Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity, Bloodbath, Nightingale) where he talks about his career and his love for AOR bands like Toto, Giant and Styx. In the following excerpt, he discusses the future of the music business:

“ I think it’s the survival of the fittest. The whole recording part will be something that you do, but playing live would be more important if you want to make a living from music. But, a person like me who makes his living from producing other people’s music… I will be a recording artist till the day I die, but I don’t think I will be a live artist.

“For me, my safety and my comfort zone is in the studio and not on stage. But, some really have to get it. They might have to record the albums themselves, and then go on long tours if they want to be musicians that make their living from the selling of their t-shirts. This will take us back before it all happened… the labels will be very selective about what to release and taking any risks investing money. So, I think that it’s kind of a retribution in a way to the way we humans treated the whole music industry with the development of the CD which could be copied and the invention of the internet. It’s all very “anti” recording.

“Books also take a shot from e-books, and the download of e-books. You don’t know what they will destroy next… magazines are suffering from .pdf’s read it on you iPad kind of shit and again when you want good music you might get even if the band has no record deal, but they are really good live. You see a clip from YouTube on your mobile or whatever, you see them live, buy the t-shirt and they can even print their own vinyl… I think that this is the future. Only the strong will survive…”

Read the full interview at RockPages.gr.