If there was any doubt that Gene Simmons was irrelevant, the following article from Afterdawn.com should clear up the confusion. Record companies have been manipulating the public for decades. A recent example includes a scam by Capitol Records. Coldplay will be auditioning bands to open for them via YouTube videos for this summer’s tour (Rolling Stone – June 26th, 2008). Have you heard the phrase “Giving up your first born”? If you sign up and agree to the Contest Rules, you are essentially giving up all rights to your submission (read this). So if you finally wrote that Million dollar song, guess what, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. Of course the onus of this little trick is on you, if you don’t read the fine print, it’s your own damn fault. But there are plenty of other examples where record companies were not so forthright in the practice of their trade. Record companies need to die, maybe not all of them, but there are several that are infected with the virus known as g.W_ep (greed with extreme prejudice). And for an artist(?) like Mr. Simmons to defend that model shows exactly where his priorities lie. Read on:
“Last November Afterdawn.com reported that Gene Simmons, founding member of the rock group KISS, had gone off on Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and college aged pirates, going as far as to call Radiohead “idiots” and saying “Every little college kid … should have been sued off the face of the earth,” for their unauthorized downloading of course.
He has followed his last tirade with some new comments, this time again blaming NIN and Radiohead but more importantly, the music fans. “The record industry is dead,” Simmons notes “It’s six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this. They’ve decided to download and file share.” He then insisted that the aforementioned bands were “contributing to the demise of the record industry” by using new intelligent sales models that apparently he does not approve of.
When asked why KISS had not released a new CD since 1998’s ‘Psycho Circus’, Simmons added that “there is no record industry around so we’re going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilized. As soon as the record industry pops its head up we’ll record new material.”
Of course, he neglects to note that at every turn the “dead” music industry continues to push consumers away, using the RIAA watch dog to sue children, grandmothers, and even deceased members of society while failing to confront the real problems the industry faces.
It is also important to note that Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails’ “idiotic” experiments have raked in millions of dollars for the bands, with little overhead and more importantly, no revenue sharing with the labels. They gave the fans what they wanted, and the fans responded. What a crazy model no?”
Lastly,
Music fans have been sharing music since there was music to share. Some marketing analysts might even consider this behavior a form of free advertising. Historically, the RIAA has sued or lobbied against any form of recordable device or media. Why…, g.W_ep, of course. Their stance is that if you buy a record or CD, but want to hear the music you just purchased on a cassette player, than you need to buy the tape as well. Enough is enough.
Downloading songs from the internet has and should change how music is distributed. Imagine this, what if musicians/artists/bands relied on live performance for the majority of their income. As if their talent and ability were the driving force behind their success instead of knowing someone or buying your way into a deal. Don’t get me wrong, awe-inspiring talent exists, but explain Milli Vanilli to me.