Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Kiss blame the consumers

Whose fault is the demise of the record industry? Gene Simmons points the finger at the audience:

"The record industry is dead, it's six feet underground, and unfortunately the fans have done this.

"They've decided to download and file share. There is no record industry around so we're going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilised."

So, it's not the fault of the industry itself for failing to respond to changing technology and shifting consumer demand.

And does it not occur to Simmons that - if an industry finds itself without people willing to pay for the products it produces at a price they are happy with - there actually is no industry? Does he believe that the major labels are in some way a social good, like education and socialised healthcare and that - although they are profit-maximising beasts who have happily embraced capitalism in the good years - customers owe them something to support them when times get tough?

Why is 'unfortunate' that businesses which fail to respond to the markets in which they operate will, themselves, fail? Isn't that what the market economy is supposed to do?


2 comments:

Francis said...

Interesting comment from Gene Simmons. My friends just got back from Donington clutching a double live CD of the Kiss show they just witnessed, in a generic Kiss "Alive 35" digipak - one of these instant live CD pressing things - £15 a pop I think - available after every show on their "Alive 35" world tour direct to the punter. So it seems that Kiss are finding ways to maximise their profits WITHOUT a record industry.

Anonymous said...

What a jackass. You'd think that a man who has actively treated music as a commodity for over thirty years just might have seen others sharing his attitude as validation.

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