Bruce Springsteen is thankful that he started in music when he did, noting that the business is more complicated than ever for new artists.
Speaking to Howard Stern in a recent interview, Springsteen referred to how music has changed since he first started getting gigs in the '60s to now.
For one, The Boss says music has a lot more competition with other entertainment mediums, like video games. He says he came up in a time when the music industry expanded dramatically. Now, it seems to be shrinking.
"You know, we came up in a golden age, right?" Springsteen said. "You know, if you're a young guy playing a guitar in 1967, 1975, 1985, you came up just as that whole business turned into something that no one ever thought it would. So, it's a blessing, but I wouldn't want to be starting now. I don't know if you can create — it's just a different world. That's all, it's just a different world."
Springsteen stopped short of saying it was better when he was coming up; he added that there's a lot of great new music today, complimenting Taylor Swift for her latest album, which he discovered through his daughter.
"She's super talented...tremendous writer," Springsteen said of Swift. "And I know her producer Jack Antonoff very well, they're making great records. So, there's people out there — hey, there's a lot of great work going on, people are still making great records and people were finding a lot of joy in those records. That's gonna go on, it's just going to be different, you know? And that's it."