Kiss Blame Fans For Industry Downturn

Gene Simmons is entirely about the bottom line, so of course he's gonna be of that opinion. However, I'm sure Kiss is handling the "death of the music industry" better then most, since they're a well established band that makes a fortune off of merchandise and live shows.

Paul sounds like he's just making excuses... sure you've got to play the hits at the show, but the real fans of a band want to hear new material too... at least for a band that still has the creative juices to make decent new material, which may not be the case for Kiss.
 
Meh, fuck Kiss/Gene Simmons. He only makes music purely for the cash and I could give a shit if he creates another cd.

But I know the industry is obviously hurting with downloading, but what do the nay-sayers say when a band like Testament has just premiered their highest ever with their 08 release? Isn't that a high-point?
 
No new material from Kiss?
Okay, I can live with that. Maybe better for the world.
If a band is good, there are enough fans which buy cd's!
 
Meh, fuck Kiss/Gene Simmons. He only makes music purely for the cash and I could give a shit if he creates another cd.

But I know the industry is obviously hurting with downloading, but what do the nay-sayers say when a band like Testament has just premiered their highest ever with their 08 release? Isn't that a high-point?

it was testaments highest debut but they had albums that sold more in 1 week but back then it wasn't enough to chart as high so in terms testaments fanbase is smaller but so is everyone elses on the chart. if this was 10 years ago testament would have probably not been in the top 100 with those same album sales

Gene Simmons is entirely about the bottom line, so of course he's gonna be of that opinion. However, I'm sure Kiss is handling the "death of the music industry" better then most, since they're a well established band that makes a fortune off of merchandise and live shows.

Paul sounds like he's just making excuses... sure you've got to play the hits at the show, but the real fans of a band want to hear new material too... at least for a band that still has the creative juices to make decent new material, which may not be the case for Kiss.


paul honestly doesn't want to write new songs with gene anymore becaue he felt like if he was gonna write almost a whole album it might as well be a solo album. he had an interview where he said him and gene just aren't on the same page anymore when writing songs
 
Agreed. I always try to buy the entire album catalogue of bands that I love - that doesn't include KISS [I don't hate them, I just don't love them].

This makes me laugh, people like Gene Simmons should kill themselves, THEN their album sales might go up :lol:
 
Some people are getting, "hurt," in the record industry, it's true. However, things change, it's as simple as that. People like Trent Reznor are doing really exciting (and profitable) things in the digital age - bands just have to adapt. It's not likely that anyone who has been around for years (KISS and so on) will make any real changes. They are too used to the old way. You can record on the cheap now, in this transition period I think more bands should put out free stuff (and make their money from radio and touring). When things settle down, there will be a way for newer bands to make money. And anyway, all these older bands make a lot from touring anyway - the popular ones anyway.

It's actually an exciting time to be a music fan, if you ask me...as far as new bands are concerned, the playing field is pretty even. It used to be that a major label meant a bigger chance to succeed. If you have a creative way to exploit the power of the Internet, you could get "huge," all by your little 'ol lonesome - no big industry dollars needed. iTunes is a good example - there are already precedents of bands who were completely unkown suddenly selling 30,000 songs in a week just because people saw their self produced youtube video - and they didn't have to give the money to a record label either (they gave it to apple instead...heha.)
 
I won't be buying any more KISS material because I have all that I'd ever want from them. They are kings of the compilation, they are only second to a band like Iron Maiden... If there is any new KISS make-up I'd love to see it without the paint. One more album and be done.
By the way did any of you catch the Gene Simmons roast on A&E? Gene got torn up by a number of comics, including his family. It was funny.
 
If a band is good, there are enough fans which buy cd's!

Not really. We have an entire young generation of kids coming up who don't buy CDs. Most of CD sales are people under 30 and the vast majority are now downloading. I think this may be the last year for CDs (and predict by about 2012 few bands will bother producing them in favor of Mp3s - which is a shame). Everyone does Rock Band / Guitar Hero and iPods now. CDs are obsolete.

In Canada, Sam the Record Man, CD Warehouse, and Music World are all now defunct - as well as my personal favorite: Media Play in the states). No one buys music anymore and it's a large reason why we've seen massive record label consolidation in the past few years.

However, like records, you're always going to have the die hards to buy CDs (myself included).
 
paul honestly doesn't want to write new songs with gene anymore becaue he felt like if he was gonna write almost a whole album it might as well be a solo album. he had an interview where he said him and gene just aren't on the same page anymore when writing songs

That's obvious when you compare Gene's and Paul's solo albums side by side. Paul certainly has more quality control in so far as music writing is concerned.

"Singer-guitarist Paul Stanley had a slightly different take as to why Kiss aren't releasing new material: no one wants to hear it. He explained: 'The truth is, we have no plans to record. The reason we don't record is because any classic band that hits the road, the last thing you really wanna hear is their new song.'

'Everyone says go out and do a new album but if you put on a live DVD of any classic band, turn off the sound and I'll tell you when they're playing a new song: it's when everyone is sitting down.'"


Well, if Iron Maiden's tour in support of "A Matter of Life and Death" was any indication, then Paul is dead wrong because I didn't see anybody sitting down when they played that album from front to back.

Personally, I'm looking to see where they take Blu-ray technology in so far as music BDs are concerned. I'm sure they'll come up with some programming that, for a while, will keep the disc from being copied, but with the amount of space available on the disc, they can put Mp3 files on the disc so you can load them up on your iPod/Mp3 player when you want.
 
It's not likely that anyone who has been around for years (KISS and so on) will make any real changes. They are too used to the old way. You can record on the cheap now, in this transition period I think more bands should put out free stuff (and make their money from radio and touring).

I was reading an article along those lines in some business magazine a couple weeks ago (not my usual reading material, I was in the waiting room at the dentist). It essentially said that touring is where the money is these days. It said that Jimmy Buffett made something like $34 mil in ticket sales in 2007. So, yeah, if you're in a band, fuck recording, hit the road.

On the other hand, I also noticed in the newspaper a few days ago where Tha Carter III went platinum in its first week. I'm sure a lot of people on this site contributed to that, :lol: . Obviously I didn't happen to pick up a copy, but I thought that was really interesting, especially because (according to the qoutes I read) Lil Wayne doesn't just endorse file sharing, he didn't even care that the album was leaked.
 
Yeah, people who create things should just let people take it without compensation. Give me a major fuckin' break! It's not about greed! It's about right and wrong! Someone's financial situation has nothing to do with it! It's copywrited material! Start your own business and have people steal from you and then tell me it's ok! I have no love for the way record companies did things, but that doesn't mean that that stealing copywrited, or trademarked material, is the right thing to do.

I'm so tired of this old, by now, arguement...validating d/l stuff without permission, just because the artist has more money than me. What a fuckin' cop out. All the people who d/l music, without buying what they d/l, would you go into a store and shop lift other goods? Hey, that's just retail downloading! No, no, I'm not stealing this TV...I'm just downloading it!

Oh yeah, Gene Simmons is the man!
 
Couldn't agree more. Brandon, huh? I'm in Tampa. Got a lot of fucking rain today....
 
Kiss Corp. hasn't been about music or the fans for decades now. Messrs Witz (CEO and vice-president: marketing) and Eisen (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer) have assebled a some nice, yet competent jewish employees (Messrs Singer and Thayer) for their corporation.
 
Not really. We have an entire young generation of kids coming up who don't buy CDs. Most of CD sales are people under 30 and the vast majority are now downloading. I think this may be the last year for CDs (and predict by about 2012 few bands will bother producing them in favor of Mp3s - which is a shame). Everyone does Rock Band / Guitar Hero and iPods now. CDs are obsolete.

In Canada, Sam the Record Man, CD Warehouse, and Music World are all now defunct - as well as my personal favorite: Media Play in the states). No one buys music anymore and it's a large reason why we've seen massive record label consolidation in the past few years.

However, like records, you're always going to have the die hards to buy CDs (myself included).

You really are presenting a grim future. I download for reviewing purposes only, if I like the album I buy it, if not I erase the d/l, my HD is not eternal to keep crap I don't care for.
But if really we are going to end without CDs in a world of pure digital media without something tangible that day I'll stop following bands and dedicate the rest of my life to listen to my old CDs and tapes, they surely will loose a customer in me.

Moreover not the whole world have access to broadband or even Internet , still people following bands and purchase the CD. Leaving music at a download/MP3 status is elitism IMO.
 
You really are presenting a grim future. I download for reviewing purposes only, if I like the album I buy it, if not I erase the d/l, my HD is not eternal to keep crap I don't care for.
But if really we are going to end without CDs in a world of pure digital media without something tangible that day I'll stop following bands and dedicate the rest of my life to listen to my old CDs and tapes, they surely will loose a customer in me.

Moreover not the whole world have access to broadband or even Internet , still people following bands and purchase the CD. Leaving music at a download/MP3 status is elitism IMO.

If there's still enough of a a market for CDs to yield some profits, then have the record companies will surely keep cranking them out. Who knows how long that will be the case though...