In a recent controversial exchange with music industry commentator Bob Lefsetz, a defiant Gene Simmons made a plea to bands and the music
industry corporate structure to urge both to realize the dependency that they share on one another in his grand vision of how to rebuild the music industry.  The moment was truly touching, but isn’t it a little late for corporate executives like Gene to be realizing how important the bands actually are to the success of the music industry?

See this segment taken from: Gene Simmons and Bob Lefsetz battle at Canadian Music Week 2009:

Instead of imparting anything truly significant to explain how he
planned to carry out his grand scheme to rebuild the fallen towers of
music Babylon, Simmons danced around with witty analogies and used
clever distractions to try to convince the audience that Lefsetz didn’t
have anything of substance to offer up to compete with Simmons’
superiority complex or his looks.  Personally, I’d have to disagree with
Gene and admit that Bob made a couple valid points–especially when it
came to his example of a Canadian band who had made a name for
themselves without relying on the help of a major label.  These sorts of
examples start to beg the question of how much longer major labels will
even remain relevant in a music industry that is undergoing serious
changes with every new technological advancement.  Gene should have
thought to encourage the suits to change policy and be more friendly to
artists 20-years ago, back when artists had little choice but to play
along.  Simply adjusting the industry rhetoric to make it sound like the
bands count this time around, doesn’t explain in the least how sticking
with a major label will actually help the artists, if even Gene
recognizes that the major labels are struggling to keep from losing
money hand over fist.

Earlier in the debate, As Lefsetz addressed the long history of how
bands have been abused at the hands of major labels in the past, I was
reminded of a story outlining some of the problems with the music
industry entitled, “The Problem With Music,”
by Steve Albini.  The article is a little dated, but still a must read
for anyone looking to get a sense of why there is so much distrust
between artists and record labels.

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

 To get another perspective on the matter, I contacted my good friend
and fellow online radio announcer Derrick Heffner (Exec. VP of Roadie
Rage, Inc.)  And it was not too long into our discussion before
something important about this debate began to surface.

 ”Although I agree with Gene when it comes to the issue of product
branding, Gene has to realize that the problem of internet piracy isn’t
going away.  What is unclear about his business model is how he plans to
take another band to world class status and yet help that band to
generate a decent profit before their albums get leaked for free all
over the internet.  Remember, the issue of internet piracy caused him to
blame fans for the downfall of the music industry not long ago,” Derrick
said.

 After a little digging around, I ran across a couple of statements
by Gene along those very lines of thought.

[Simmons raged: "In all seriousness - and it's unfortunate - but the
record industry is dead; it's six feet under the ground and
unfortunately, the fans
have done this. They've decided to download and file share and there's
no record industry around. We're gonna wait till everyone settles down
and becomes
civilized and as soon as the record industry pops its head then we'll
record new material."]

Excerpt taken from: Kiss Blame Fans For Industry Downturn, June 16th, 2008

http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/2008/exclusive-kiss-blame-fans-for-industry-downturn

“There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How
are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if
people can
just get it for free? I will be putting out a Gene Simmons box set
called “Monster” — a collection of 150 unreleased songs. KISS will have
another box
set of unreleased music in the next year.

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.”

Excerpt taken from an interview with Billboard Q&A’s Antony Bruno on
November 12th, 2007.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003671447

 But, something is amiss here.  Gene told Lefsetz and the fans back
at the debate that he intended on taking a band or two from Canada all
the way to world class status.  Which is a sharp contrast from his last
statement about the chances of a new band making it above.  Now, if Gene
had said that he was going to take a band all the way prior to the
emergence of the whole problem with internet piracy, I wouldn’t have a
reason to doubt his ability to pull it off.  But, I suppose only time
will tell if he can make it happen from within an industry he has
characterized as being “six feet under”.