Gene Simmons on Digital Music
Nov 15, 2007
Gene Simmons, the outspoken and outlandish bass player from rock band Kiss, talked trash about the digital 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?
You can almost picture him breathing fire again.
Tags:
Digital Music, File Sharing
