gene "absolutely no talent" simmons.

Gene Simmons on how the Internet killed music: "'How come my new band can't get a shot?' Because you killed it, biatch." your new band sucks, GENE"

Cewley: gene "absolutely no talent" simmons.

Is he related to Don "no soul" Simmons?

/why. do. birds. sud-en-ly appear.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: Cewley: gene "absolutely no talent" simmons.

Is he related to Don "no soul" Simmons?

/why. do. birds. sud-en-ly appear.

/Are you president of the David Hartman Fan Club?

Then: a vanishingly tiny number of bands get really huge or rich via promotion by the big labels, like the Beatles or KISS.

Now: A huge number of bands get moderate exposure through self-promotion and nobody gets huge and rich like the Beatles or KISS.

*shrug*

"But there isn't a chance for a new band to become the next Beatles or Kiss because there isn't the infrastructure to do it."

No, it's because people have plenty of other shiat to do now.

TFA: "Every day college kids who probably love music more than anybody are the same people slashing the record industry's throat by file sharing and downloading. It's the saddest thing for new bands. Doesn't affect me or Kiss. We can continue to play stadiums and do very well, and we release DVDs.

A brief translation:
"Waah. Nobody's buying KISS music anymore so I'll blame it on piracy. As long as I cast the blame on those filthy pirates, it'll keep me in the good graces of the major labels. We'll just have to sustain ourselves like we always have: By selling merchandise and overpriced concert tickets. Waah.

I have no idea about this newfangled Interweb technology, so I'll say that it's bad. Nevermind the artists and labels that have embraced it and are doing great business. Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, the Go-Kart records, Alternative Tentacles... well, I've never listened to any one of those so they must not exist.

And why isn't anyone buying my shoddily-written comic books? Waah. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get into another argument with Howard Stern over who invented everything."

Gene is smoking crack.

The reasons why there won't be another "Beatles" is because our society isn't limited to 3 TV stations, 3 radio stations and a newspaper in most towns anymore. The Beatles in one week filled the entire Top 5 on the Billboard Top 40 charts. Nobody will ever do that again, because the public isn't limited to a few choices in entertainment anymore, determined by a few people in a boardroom.

The internet is just one part of the widening of choices in society. That is why the changes are there, not because of the "internet" exclusively.

zorgon: Then: a vanishingly tiny number of bands get really huge or rich via promotion by the big labels, like the Beatles or KISS.

Now: A huge number of bands get moderate exposure through self-promotion and nobody gets huge and rich like the Beatles or KISS.

*shrug*

Exactly. Why should anyone who isn't a studio executive care?

What would Gene have said in 1978 if Kay Kaiser, Pee Wee Hunt, or the Andrew Sisters (all #1 acts 30 years prior) had complained about a lack of popularity or sales?

I say that.

KISS star GENE SIMMONS has blamed internet downloads for destroying the music industry - insisting there will never be any more legendary bands like THE BEATLES

And the answer is "so what".

So what if there's never another big superstar pop band. What the internet has done is given each niche its chance to shine. The bizarre and obscure are able to find their audience on an international scale and get paid to boot.

With services like CD Baby and iTunes my band has been getting cut regular cheques for our music. If we were still playing by the old rules where 4 big companies contolled over 95% of all recorded music then we would not.

The Big 4 are no longer the sole control over promotion and distribution and even production. File sharers aren't hurting the small bands at all. shiat, I used to leave a computer on 24-7 hooked up to a file share with nothing on its directory but MP3 of my music. It was like free radio play. I've seen nothing but more interest generated for my music because of it which meant more money come in from CD Baby and iTunes.

Yeah, I'll never get to shiat on a solid gold toilet and wipe my ass with $100 bills and do coke off a 12 year old hooker's ass. Big frikken deal, none of those things are important to me in the least. What is important to me is reaching my audience to my fullest potential and the internet is what makes that happen. It's what's making it happen for hundreds of thousands of musicians around the world.

So when the day comes that there are no longer manufactured superstars it won't be because the big bad internet has killed off the music industry. It will be because the internet has changed the music industry from an industry where the very few get a big huge slice of the pie and the many get the crumbs to one where everyone more or less gets the same sized slice or at least a slice in proportion to how well they, as artists, are able to connect to their audience.

I will not weep when the last superstar has fallen. To me it's an illusion musicians should have had the good sense to stop chasing long ago. Finally we now have the resources in our hands to do without it.

You want to be happy in the music industry, then here's the key. Stop trying chasing the dream the Big 4 have been telling you to chase. Get yourself a dayjob you love and fulfill yourself as an artist in your off hours. Create the music you want to create, not what you think will make you the next "big thing". Use the resources available to you to reach your audience to your best potential. If you get bucks back from that then be grateful, but consider them the icing on the cake. The goal should be the music, not the dollars.

I've been working in the music industry for a very long time. In that time the most bitter musicians I've ever met were ones who got signed to a Big 4 label.

We're living in a new renaissance and most people don't seem to realize it. The old institutions and their business models are crumbling and I say good riddance. The music industry isn't dying. It's changing, that's all. And it's changing into something more vibrant, more diverse than it ever was before. It's changing into something that will benefit more artists than it ever has before.

When the establishment tells the fringe to be afraid of change you have to stop and wonder who is really the one afraid here.

see GENE, its not like the 70;s were people would blindly pay for a vinyl record filled with fillers... we want quality and now we have the option to choose what we buy.

So yes, less overbloated rock stars like you

more satisfied customer, who wont buy so many albums that they would not have bought in the first place if they knew what they were buying.

the customer comes first GEne, see?

It's funny how I keep discovering new bands through the internet, and often the money I spend on their music goes directly to the band without huge percentages being taken by managers, record labels etc.

Suck it, Gene.

Watchman: What would Gene have said in 1978 if Kay Kaiser, Pee Wee Hunt, or the Andrew Sisters (all #1 acts 30 years prior) had complained about a lack of popularity or sales?

I say that.

Oh SNAP.

Gene just got told. Told, I say!

Kiss was a novelty act that got lucky, Gene. Count your money and STFU.

beve: It's funny how I keep discovering new bands through the internet, and often the money I spend on their music goes directly to the band without huge percentages being taken by managers, record labels etc.

Suck it, Gene.

Yes that's the other important thing too. The vast majority of the money from sales of my band's music goes to my band. The people who will be hurt most by the changes coming to the industry are not going to be the musicians. It'll be the suits in the industry who have up until now, enjoyed making a living by exploiting the musicians they claim to serve.

If these suits plan to still be able to make money in the music industry in the future they're going to actually have to SERVE the musicians. Companies like CD Baby are going to be where it's at. The time where artists are exploited is coming to an end. Instead of artists having to convince record companies to sign them, companies are going to have to convince artists they're better off using their services than those of their competitors.

All this wailing and gnashing of the teeth we're hearing over how evil the internet is and how it's killing the music industry is just the long overdue death rattle of an outdated and exploitative business model.

I just stopped in to explain the 14 or so ways ol' Gene is full of shiat. But, I see you folks have it under control...

Far from "killing music", the internet has made it easier for bands to get their music out to the people who want to hear it. There doesn't need to be another Beatles. It's been done.

Ghastly: All this wailing and gnashing of the teeth we're hearing over how evil the internet is and how it's killing the music industry is just the long overdue death rattle of an outdated and exploitative business model.

I'd rather listen to Science Ninja Big Ten than KISS, anyhow.

Music also sucks these days. That has something to do with it.

Right mother farking on, Ghastly. Now why isn't there a link to your band in your profile so I can check it out?

As a guy in band who has no delusions of being famous but does it just for the fun, the internet is great for musicians. Not great for Fat Cats.

Oh, and if I knew in advance that my band was going to be the next Kiss, I'd kill myself.

FTA: KISS star GENE SIMMONS has blamed internet downloads for destroying the music industry - insisting there will never be any more legendary bands like THE BEATLES.

A. The Beatles' popularity was as much about time & place as it was about songwriting. Unless you can supplant all popular music with Lawrence Welk tunes for 50 years, making everyone forget that rock ever existed, then you might have a tiny shot at creating a "legendary" pop/rock act like The Beatles ... and even then, it would be a weak simulation.

B. The context in which the Beatles exploded was pretty much the wild west in terms of record companies and rock music. It was all uncharted territory back then. Now, we've had a full generation of record company experience in the fine art of packaging pop acts. If anyone does show up with the talent and flair of the Beatles, they'll be just as much a flash-in-the-pan as the last also-ran metal band. Remember Oasis?

C. The Beatles, musically, weren't the revolutionaries everyone wants to give them credit for. In most cases, the things that they're credited with originating are actually things that, by virtue of their stature, they merely popularized.

D. Stop your whining, grandpa. Things change, and when it's a commercial thing, like rock music, it's going to change rapidly and rarely for the better. The internet was a place for data pirates and hackers years ago - now, it's just another means of delivering advertisements. Reality TV was an interesting concept once - now, it's a poor excuse for TV networks to keep tons of ad revenue. California used to be a frontier; now, it's a conformist's paradise. Rock music is no different; it used to be wildly creative and full of genuinely talented musicians exploring sonic boundaries and even developing new technologies just to make an album; now anyone with $2,000 worth of gear can make a great-sounding album in his basement and sell it online ... and make far more money per song than big-time commercial musicians.

The good thing about it is that you're forced to go find the music you want to hear, rather than waiting for FM radio, or MTV, to tell you what's cool or "revolutionary". Plus, you have a more direct connection with the artist via the internet, rather than them being distant, mystical figures behind a massive wall of merchandising.

But, that's what this is really all about, isn't it, Gene?

/embrace the future
//embrace the change
///or STFU

I, without reservation, am a KISS fan.

That must be why there were no albums released in 2007.

Slu: Right mother farking on, Ghastly. Now why isn't there a link to your band in your profile so I can check it out?

As a guy in band who has no delusions of being famous but does it just for the fun, the internet is great for musicians. Not great for Fat Cats.

Science Ninja Big Ten website, which I will admit I haven't updated in over a year. I've just been very very busy this past year. Once I've got the crazy down to an acceptable level I'll be fixing the site up. I don't think I've updated that site since we did our show with A Flock Of Seagulls. I need to put up pictures from our show with Thomas Dolby.

GreenAdder: Ghastly: All this wailing and gnashing of the teeth we're hearing over how evil the internet is and how it's killing the music industry is just the long overdue death rattle of an outdated and exploitative business model.

I'd rather listen to Science Ninja Big Ten than KISS, anyhow.

Thanks. I still think KISS is a very fun band. But Gene's success in the music industry has ironically given him a very distorted impression of how the music industry really works and what its future is going to be.

I find it hard to take criticism from the industry from a man whose most notable output for the last decade and a half has either been action figures or a farking reality show. Oh, and 'Carnival of Souls,' which sucked donkey dick.

Go away, Gene. Go back to the mother of your children and your son who is aping Adrian Zmed and pretend you have some dignity that doesn't involve you and your 'girlfriend' getting lipo during another episode.

How is it the world's fault that Gene Simmons "music" sucks?

Watchman: What would Gene have said in 1978 if Kay Kaiser, Pee Wee Hunt, or the Andrew Sisters (all #1 acts 30 years prior) had complained about a lack of popularity or sales?

I say that.

THIS X 1000

Simmons is right. The big lie the label-haters tell themselves is this: "Yeah, I support the artists directly now". Check your hard drive: You paid 5 guys. You downloaded 300. Net result: hundreds of aspiring artists with no realistic shot at a career. And that music you downloaded for free? Guess what - it cost money to make. People cared about it and worked hard to make it. People with bills. But that's okay. Labels are bad, so I can steal.

I'm taking no sides on "right", "wrong" or "Shut up, Grandpa!!!", but a few points:

He's right, but for the wrong reasons. As has been said, there will never be another Beatles or even KISS, but that has to do with a hundred other factors. One big reason is that, about 50 years into the Rock N' Roll era, there are probably about 500 times more recording acts than there were even 20 years ago. That's because of cheaper home recording capabilities, the internet and simple over-saturation. Basically, ever dick and his buddy has a band, and there are many, many good ones .... in fact, too many good ones to even get noticed.

Plus, styles have fragmented and cross-pollinated and have been regurgitated and ripped-off and copied to the point of absurdity. The old mantra is "there is nothing new", and it's true to a degree. You find any band that you truly think is totally original and unique and give someone a day on the internet, they could probably find 20 bands that sound just as "Unique". That basically means too much competition.

Eventually, a huge proportion of the music output will be no bigger than bar bands that make enough money to cover the cost of recording the music, maybe less. Just thousands of bands actually not really making a living, but just covering costs.

Is that a good thing? A bad thing? I dunno, but that's sorta how it looks like it's going, though.

Seems to me that there are plenty of big label artists who are still making big CDs, doing stadium tours, selling t=shirts, getting radio play and getting film and TV licenses. Avril Lavigne, Nickleback, Matchbox 20, Foo Fighters.... These are all bands who came to prominence in the 1990s and are today sitting at "big music star" status. There's plenty more like them.


I might not like their music but Nickleback is someone's "Beatles", and I think Nickelback has the sales and tour numbers to back that up.

ghoulie_mask: He's right, but for the wrong reasons. As has been said, there will never be another Beatles or even KISS, but that has to do with a hundred other factors.

People were saying that ten years ago. Then OK Computer was released.

whitecaps: Simmons is right. The big lie the label-haters tell themselves is this: "Yeah, I support the artists directly now". Check your hard drive: You paid 5 guys. You downloaded 300. Net result: hundreds of aspiring artists with no realistic shot at a career. And that music you downloaded for free? Guess what - it cost money to make. People cared about it and worked hard to make it. People with bills. But that's okay. Labels are bad, so I can steal.

The big lie is the labels telling musicians "if you're really good we'll sign you and you'll become superstar millioniers".

Musicians no longer need 4 big record companies to make money off their music. Most of us have realized what bullshirt it was to chase the illusion of superstardom and are instead concentrating on making music we love and utilizing the resources available to us to connect with our audience as best we can.

It's no longer a small pond with a couple of big fish. It's now a huge ocean with hundreds of thousands of fish swimming in it. We're probably seeing the decline of the influence of the corporate manufactured superstar.

And yes, people have bills to pay. Thankfully technology has reached a price point where it no longer costs tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce an album. Musicians no longer have to go into hock to record a three song demo tape in the hopes of getting signed to a big label. They can now produce, distribute, and promote an entire album for a fraction of the cost.

Like I said, you want to be happy in the music industry then get a day job you love and use your off hours to make the music that makes you happy and use the resources of the internet to connect with your audience no matter how big or small it may be.

Don't take a job shoveling shirt with the thought "well I'm just doing this until I make it big". That's a recipe for misery right there.

And as I said before. The most bitter musicians I've ever worked with have all been people who got signed to a label. They'll all tell you it wasn't the file sharers that screwed them in the ass and farked up their careers. It was some guy in a suit working for the label.

BTW, if ever there was to be something that was required reading for musicians planning to record it would be The Problem With Music by Steve Albini.

You're all a bunch of spineless hacks, sucking the hind tit of technology for a huge free music library.

What if all your hard work was being taken for free by a bunch of frugal, limewire using bastards? I hope you all get viruses.

GeneSimmonz: What if all your hard work was being taken for free by a bunch of frugal, limewire using bastards?

I derive a portion of my income from publishing royalties and CD sales. I get ripped off. I'm losing some of that income. So be it.

Interestingly, the stuff on which I have "points" which are not being ripped off on p2p or torrentz never make me any money since they are not being bought legitimately either. I can do a search at thepiratebay and find something I own a piece of and if I find it on TPB that means I'll likely be getting a cheque for the legit sales within six months. Not on TPB means that nobody -- legit or illegit -- is interested in the product.

nothing since destroyer........

Yes you'll never see awesome song writing like this ever again:



You show us everything you've got
You keep on dancin' and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day

You keep on saying you'll be mine for a while
You're lookin' fancy and I like your style
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You show us everything you've got
Baby, baby that's quite a lot
And you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'

I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll

It's going to all be about "wannabes" who dress up to act like they are hard rockers.


*smirk*

Dear Mr. Simmons,

Shut the fark up, you old bloated piece of shiat! You know absolutely nothing about the Internet or the state of the modern music business. The REAL reason that the major label music industry is circling the bowl is because of the ineptitude of greedy 70's label dinosaurs like yourself.

Great music and new bands will continue to survive without you, thank you very much. The world needs another mass merchandising sellout like KISS like you need another million dollars.

Sincerely,
The Internet

whitecaps: Simmons is right. The big lie the label-haters tell themselves is this: "Yeah, I support the artists directly now". Check your hard drive: You paid 5 guys. You downloaded 300. Net result: hundreds of aspiring artists with no realistic shot at a career. And that music you downloaded for free? Guess what - it cost money to make. People cared about it and worked hard to make it. People with bills. But that's okay. Labels are bad, so I can steal.

Yeah but the problem is that the labels resisted PAID downloads all they could. They need to change their model to make money. They tried not to do it and now after Apple finally made them do it they A - Want to give the artists less money. and B - Now want to destroy apple so they can try to make bigger profits per song.

These are some of the most short sited people in the universe and every chance they can want to kill any goose which lays golden eggs.

One of the big reasons people are stealing so much from them is that they try to make huge profits on everything even if no one is willing to pay for it.

Yes people shouldn't "steal" music. But companies should charge a price that people will actually buy something for.

I think a lot of old dinosaur bands that biatch about even legal downloading are the ones that are used to putting out albums with a lot of "filler" in them. People who liked the song, way before this intrawebs thing kids, were forced to plunk down $15 for a CD. I was sick of buying CDs and getting 9 songs or so of filler. Now bands have to put out a really good album for someone to buy the whole thing. Don't faking biatch to me about one song if your superstar band comes out with an album sub-par songs because you and the guys decided to half-ass it. Bust your ass to come up with good material because your fans are smarter than you think.

Yes, I'm looking at you Lars. 'Master of Puppets' was legendary. 'St. Anger' headed straight for the 'nice price' bin.

Fark U: if you consider "music" a "product" you are an industry TOOL.

If you don't consider "music" a product then you're growing your own weed.

whitecaps: Simmons is right. The big lie the label-haters tell themselves is this: "Yeah, I support the artists directly now". Check your hard drive: You paid 5 guys. You downloaded 300.

And that's different from the olden days of yore, when I listened to 30 singles at the listening stations and bought one to play for two solid weeks...how?

Net result: hundreds of aspiring artists with no realistic shot at a career.

Net result: thousands of aspiring artists who can post samples of their music online, or somebody says, hey you oughta listen to whatshisname, and I bop over to the pirate bay or mininova, download something to check it out, and if I like it, I buy it. From iTunes or directly from the aspiring artist's web site.

And that music you downloaded for free? Guess what - it cost money to make. People cared about it and worked hard to make it. People with bills. But that's okay. Labels are bad, so I can steal.

So? fark the labels. All the labels do is offer me trite and dross. I'd rather support a local artist by buying his CD after a concert at the bar, than supporting the pap the labels are putting out.

There seems to be this rhetoric that implies "not paying is the same as piracy." This sets a dangerous precedent. For instance, I hate Nickelback's music. I don't own anything by Nickelback, digital or otherwise. Still, technically I haven't paid Nickelback any money. Am I still "taking money out of their pockets?"

I've never bought a piece of modern art. Am I the reason the artists are starving? I don't go to see chick flicks, nor do I buy them on DVD. Do I still owe Matthew McConaughey the price of a movie ticket?

Now that record co's don't have a stranglehold on non-metropolitan areas for exposing new music, their antique methods (see: Simmons' distorted view of how the business should run) are failing to generate huge revenues for a small stable of bands. This and the fact the record co's depended on mining whatever that trend at the time happened to be (Hair, 'Grunge', Rap-Metal...et al) seem to be what 'killed' the recording industry. I grew up on the edge of nowhere, with no independent or local music AT ALL, and detest the idea that a few old millionaires dictated my tastes for so long. Long live independent music! Let all the majors die out to make room for the future. And fark Gene Simmons.

Maybe recording artists used to make most of their money from recordings, but now they have to make it on the road. Oh well, times change.

Not trying to spam the comments either, just really tired of ANYONE giving that idiot Simmons face or press time. Why does anyone even care what this guy thinks? He's a failed banker who lucked out with a gimmick band (judging by his priorities). Now I'm done.

You always sucked, your old band was just a crappy gimmick with crappy music. And never mention Kiss with the Beatles again, never-was

/RANT!

Did he actually compare the Beatles to Kiss?

He IS the Devil.