Pete Townshend, legendary guitarist and songwriter for the seminal British band The Who, recently stopped by The Daily Show for an interview with Jon Stewart to promote his new book and talk about the state of modern media compared to the "old days." When talking about how the music business has evolved, he had some choice words for Apple and iTunes — Townshend said that his issues with the company stem from the fact that "they don't put any of their profit back into music." Instead, artists have to fend for themselves a lot more these days, he said, noting that the old record companies "paid advances they nurtured young bands, and they let you make a couple of bad albums in the hopes that you might make a good one." Townshend argued that while the internet has allowed for greater distribution, and there's a lot more talent out there, but "people have to do it on their own, completely, without any help."
Townshend also talked about the current social media microscope Stewart also asked asked if his band was able to get away with so much destruction due to the comparative lack of people following a band's every single move, Townshend said, "we were under a microscope, but not in the same way." Now, the trend is for artists to "willingly put up their lives on Twitter, everything they do." For more from Townshend on his songwriting process, some unfiltered thoughts on record labels, and the potential supergroup / crime fighting team "Justin Guy and Lady Woman," check out the two-part interview below.