KISS’ GENE SIMMONS SAYS DOWNLOADING, AND FILESHARING, HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE DECLINE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS
KISS frontman Gene Simmons spoke with Us Weekly and blamed the decline of the music business on the consumers.
Simmons said (via blabbermouth.net), “”By and large, new artists will never have the chance that we got, because record companies would give us millions of dollars — once we got successful — as an advance, non-recoupable, with a royalty system and all that. And so we didn’t have to work day jobs. Now if you’re a new band, you can’t make a living because all the freckle-faced college kids — who, by the way, hate me — because what I’m saying is it’s robbery. You’re robbing by downloading and filesharing that music. It doesn’t affect me; our band came before, when it was a real business. But the new artists, you’re breaking my heart. It’s like new babies being born without being able to have food. You’re taking food from their mouths so they have to go work for a living and not have enough time for their art.”
Who killed the music business? The fans did,” he continued. “Not a foreign power, not aliens; the fans killed it. And who do I blame? The record companies for not suing that first putz who dared break into the henhouse and steal some eggs and a chicken for free. As soon as you let that first fox into that henhouse to take some eggs without paying for it, the rest of the foxes come along. Likewise, cockroaches — you allow one into the kitchen, you squash that first one, the rest of ’em are gonna go, ‘Uh-oh, we’ve gotta watch out.’
So, Pandora’s box has been opened. There are hundreds of millions of fans around the world that are trained [in their minds] not to pay for music. So what does that do for new bands? It kills them. When you take away the value of something, it becomes by definition worthless.
Imagine being a farmer, and you sell eggs and chickens — that’s what you do. And that first little cute fox comes in and steals an egg. And the farmer is gonna try to shoot the fox, ’cause, ‘Hey, you’re stealing my living.’ And the wife says, ‘Don’t [shoot the fox]. It’s so cute.’ That cute little fox takes the egg back to where all the foxes are: ‘Hey, we’ve got a sucker over here. Let’s go get some chickens and eggs.’ Before you know it, there are no chickens; no eggs’ the farmer’s out of business; the trucks that drove the farmer’s stuff to market are out of business ’cause they don’t have stuff; the supermarkets that sold the stuff are out of business. Everybody’s out of business because that first putz, that first little hole in the Titanic sank the whole ship.”
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Is that cute little fox Eric Carr reinCARRnated…?
For as great as the internet is, it also ruined the mystique for many bands especially Kiss. I miss the old days like getting in line to buy a new album at midnight (tonight would be for the new Maiden)! Also, going into a book store or convenience store to get the hottest rock magazines. A lot of newer bands will have a very difficult time making it “big” due to the way of the world. I still buy albums and cd’s. Always will. The older bands are disappointing me though by continuously re-releasing old albums in these extravagant box sets that quite honestly don’t offer much more than shitty recordings of demos and maybe a decent recording of a concert. It’d be nice if bands would record new music regularly. Many bands like Kiss say there’s no market for new music but yet they often do side projects which contradict that (Paul Stanley’s Soul Station/Mike Portnoy and George Lynch’s many projects come to mind). I understand it’s the music business, but at the end of the day it all boils down to being an artist. If you love what you do, then you should still release new music regularly. You may not make millions off records like the old days but you’ll at least break even and then profit on tour.
Yeah I still buy cds and being there and seeing the start of the downloading makes me feel old
In school I was the defender of buying music and was the bad guy because I wanted people to pay for music
I know we don’t care for TRL but the fans of that show would head over across the street to get the new music of the artists that were on there
Once the downloading with mp3s and Itunes started picking up steam legal or not
And fans could watch the videos online less and less were buying the music
Now look at it whole albums get put out on youtube before or right after they come out
So its worse now the tech got better for the music to be put out quicker so people still don’t have to pay for it
Most people have been IMO desensitized to most music there is just too much crap music everywhere , the danger , rebellion and mystery is gone from rock music – and you can stream everything for free , if you can get it for free it’s … it’s just not that important to the listener no matter what the artistic or cultural message might be- then there is the ripping off / crime aspect to ” file sharing ”
This should have been made a crime with real consequences, file sharing is stealing plain and simple – Gene first talked about this a few years ago he was right about this then and he’s right now great post !
Case in point about not having to buy music , I bought the new Iron Maiden album came out today , Iron Maiden and the label puts the whole album on youtube for nothing
I could see giving short previews, but that is just dumb…
Maiden knows their audience very well. They know true, dedicated fans will by a hard copy. Curious young metalheads may opt to download. If anything, it’s more attendance at the shows, because true fans always buy a ticket, and now the new kids will, too. Maiden wins. They still make their regular money, and have added new fans into the mix at the shows.
I communicate with a young’un on Lost In Vegas‘ Patreon site, named Lucas, I think he is 19(?) and from Germany.
He inquired about reactions to new Maiden the album. So, I directed him to the stories posted here, to read all of your comments, on the two songs that were released. He agreed with most of everyone’s assessments, especially whomever criticized their production since Brave New World. He also agreed he does not like prog-Maiden, and said Maiden was his favorite band, when he got into metal five years ago. He wrote that back then, he was so enthusiastic, he forgave a lot, but five years on, he is more discerning about it…and Judas Priest, too-LOL!
He “said” he was going to listen to the album today, and share his thoughts. I told him if he was so inclined to register here, and share his audio observations. Not sure that he will, but it is great hearing a young person’s perspective.