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Passing up on the internet — how the music industry failed to see downloads and streaming coming

18 January 2018

We kicked him out the office with our boots ringing on his backside

John Niven was responsible for finding and developing new talent for the big record industry.

Back in the 1990s, John, like many of his colleagues, couldn’t get his head around downloading music so missed out on the chance to make millions.

Here he explains how he lived to rue the day they passed at getting on the ground floor with an internet giant.

Former A&R man John Niven on the download revolution

How the business didn’t understand the impact of downloads.

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