Kiss off, Gene Simmons
p2pnet news | Music:- “Gene Simmons is a busy man. The legendary KISS founder fills his time with a variety of projects. There’s filming for ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels,’ the reality show entering its third season on A&E. And there’s an animated show on Nickelodeon called ‘My Dad the Rock Star’.”
Wowee.
That’s from Billboard, which also has Simmons saying:
The record industry doesn’t have a f*cking clue how to make money. 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.
Doesn’t affect me. But imagine being a new band with dreams of getting on stage and putting out your own record. Forget it.
But Sean Coon (right) on Dotmatrix begs to differ, posting, “There’s so much crap in that blurt, I almost don’t know where to begin”.
But he does, and he goes on >>>
1. I agree 100% with Simmons that the music industry has had no clue in evolving their business model to work with the open mechanisms of the internet since its inception – but that’s where we go our separate ways.
2. The music industry should’ve dropped the moniker ‘record’ as soon as digital tracks became available. No one buys records to listen to records anymore. It’s apropos, though, that someone as musically irrelevant and ancient as Gene Simmons still uses that language.
3. There is no henhouse. Never has been. The internet as a protocol is close to being P2P native, but software designed to transfer files across the internet in a collaborative fashion simply took advantage of music as a file format, like any other document of bits. Who do you sue for that?
4. Suing fans into perpetuity does nothing to improve ‘record’ sales or halt the evolution of technology and culture. A better approach would’ve been to figure out how to make money off P2P instead of trying to eliminate it while ostracizing the market with fear tactics.
5. Who is this class of 100,000 to a million people out of work? Throughout time and across industries, the middleman has never enjoyed a guaranteed existance with technology in play. And if Simmons is referring to artists, he’s on crack. Artists – of any kind – are not guaranteed a career by anyone, in any medium. If they were, I wouldn’t be a commercial artist to pay the mortgage and an artist on the side to fulfill my soul. Simmons is still experiencing a coke high from the seventies with that perspective.
6. People who copy files that were designed to be copied are now crooks? Either lock the goods in the safe (DRM) and change the very DNA that defines a digital document or monetize the actual process of being ‘looted.’ There’s no in-between and the market is clearly not buying into the future of DRM.
7. Hey Gene, hate to break it to you, but bands are still hitting the stage and they’re more empowered than ever to make a ‘record.’ The difference? They don’t live in an age where long tongues, fake blood and platform boots can sell millions of copies of a two-hit record for $10, all the while being fronted big cash by a label who could sell an igloo to an Eskimo and get him to pay an extra $100 to see a grade B act fill a Colosseum show. This is the information age; those days have been dead for years now.
I do love you in Gene Simmons Family Jewels, though.
Nice one, Sean 
Also See:
Billboard – Billboard Q&A: Gene Simmons , November 12, 2007
Dotmatrix – And The Stupidity Keeps Rolling In, November 15, 2007
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November 15th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Gene Simmons is an absolute IDIOT! Where does he get off thinking that the more people you sue, the more they will turn to your way of thinking?
The idiot can’t understand that they HAVE sued people and all it has done is to turn them away from the big 4 labels. Does he really believe the garbage he is spewing? Sounds like Metallica all over again. Lars 2…the return…cue in jaws music. (Just make sure it is copyrighted first)
So unless that uninformed imbicle can come up with something better than that, maybe he ought to stick with his TV shows.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Simmons is a total asshole.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Chaim Witz (stage name Gene Simmons) should go back to Israel. He pretends to be a musician, but he was always a ruthless businessman and money was the only thing that ever mattered to him. He even cheated his fellow bandmembers.
That he’s so eager to stick a knife in the backs of his fans when they can no longer be exploited should not surprise anyone who ever knew him.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Sean Coon: Truer words were never spoken. Nobody could have said it better.
Just when you think you know how much of a sellout-prick $immons is, he manages to outdo himself every time. But really, is anyone the least bit surprised? This is a man who lives unmarried to the mother of his children, and still sleeps around with random women. This is a man who sued King Diamond for wearing similar make-up. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to sue every black metal band in existance.
And for the record: NIN>KI$$
November 15th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I think your equation needs an upgrade
NIN + Radio Head > Music Industry + KI$$ + Gene + RIAA + Metalica + Prince(ss)
Also
What the hell does Shanon see in him, other then the children.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Oh sorry, let me be more precise:
NIN + Radiohead + and every other decent band that doesn’t take their fans for granted > Fred Durst > Dog shit > Music Industry + KI$$ + Gene + RIAA + Metallica + Prince(ss)
November 15th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Who is Gene Simmons?
November 15th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
No, WHAT is Gene Simmons?
November 15th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
No, WHAT is Prince?
November 15th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
A hermaphrodite with a seriously fucked up purple guitar.
November 17th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Be honest people. You and I are thieves. Justifying our actions just because of technology doesn’t change that fact.
What is the difference between walking into a record store, stuffing a CD into your pocket and logging onto a P2P network and downloading a CD? Technology? Ease?
Sure the money grubbing Music industry is to blame for ripping off bands and fans for years while making themselves rich along with a few artists. But that doesn’t justify you or I returning the favor.
Sure bands like NIN and Radiohead can give away their music, and make their living off touring. But ask yourself how in the hell did they get to that level???? They sold CDs, built an audience, toured, and created a demand. They already have enough of YOUR money to do whatever they want.
Do I care whether KISS can rip off another penny for kids??? No. But I do care about the bands today and in the future that will never get to be heard unless they decide to just do their music for the love it, put it on MySpace for free. Play a few gigs, and are forced to make their living off a full-time job at McDonald’s.
I hope the day never comes when someone decides the fruit of your labor no longer needs to be purchased and instead can be stolen.