Just Keep Suing the Fans

Tech Policy Central

Gene Simmons on Digital Music

Nov 15, 2007

Gene Simmons, the outspoken and outlandish bass player from rock band Kiss, talked trash about the digitalhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif music business during a recent interview with Billboard magazine. It seems that despite his band's rebel image, he's not a fan of kids downloading digital tunes without paying for them.

Here's Mr. Simmons' rant, in his own words:

The record industry is in such a mess...It's only their fault for letting foxes get into the henhouse and then wondering why there's no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask.

He also gave Billboard an earful when asked about other artists like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor trying alternative business models.

That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on f***ing crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works?

End of Article

First Prince, now Gene Simmons. You have a problem and your answer is to just sue them, that will make it go away. Gene is that your answer to everything? Wake up! The genie is out of the bottle, file sharing is here to stay. Maybe if the fat, lazy record labels had not ignored file sharing this problem wouldn't be as bad as it is. Oh, and let's not forget about the overpriced crap they have been releasing. Business must evolve, it it doesn't then it deserves to die. Bands must grow and evolve or they deserve to die. This is not the 70s or 80s, what you grew up with Gene is dead, that way of doing business is over. Don't like? That's your right, but you aren't going to change things. You could release music and you could make money doing it. You are releasing DVDs; guess what I can just as easily rip and share your DVDs as I could a CD. Why are you releasing DVDs? Did somebody advance you some money, I bet so. You are free to run your business as you like, but shut up and don't bitch that the fans are the reason for the way things are today. Everybody has an opinion, but your opinion on technology means nothing more than your medical advice. You are not an expert in this area.

"Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work." What! Where do you get these numbers, back it up? Blame the kids, don't blame the labels for running a bad business that refused to evolve.

Hey, do you know that when you release your Monster box set it will be shared? Why are you releasing it, did somebody give you an advance so you don't care as much about how it sells?