Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071114/music_nm/kiss_dc;_ylt=ArBUSHKWeS6jtECUe4UDRu5xFb8C)


NEW YORK (Billboard) - 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."


Simmons is writing his third book -- "Ladies of the Night," a "personal and historical overview" on the profession of prostitution -- coming this spring via his own publishing company, Simmons Books. He also has Simmons Comics, with three comic book series based on characters he's created. The list goes on.

Simmons recently chatted with Billboard about KISS and the music industry.

YOU'VE GOT THE THIRD SERIES OF THE KISSOLOGY DVD COMING OUT NEXT MONTH. IS THERE MUCH MORE WE CAN EXPECT COMING?

There'll be 10. No one -- and that includes the Beatles and Elvis -- can touch our (KISS') merchandising and licensing. Nobody. Outside of the music world, it's only Disney and Lucas. But in the music world, they can't shine our shoes.

ANY TOURING PLANS?

We'll tour a few dates next year. We don't have anything to prove to anybody or do press to convince anybody we're important. We're doing KISS festivals around the Indy car racing series. Simmons Abramson Marketing (his business partnership with entertainment industry veteran Richard Abramson) markets and brands Indy cars. I came up with the I Am Indy brand, by the way. They go on the night before. We'll do 15 dates or so. We'll also go to Australia and New Zealand and maybe to four to six shows -- but nothing comprehensive until we feel like it.

IT HAS BEEN NINE YEARS SINCE WE'VE SEEN A NEW KISS ALBUM. ANY PLANS TO GET BACK INTO THE STUDIO?

The record industry is in such a mess. I called for what it was when college kids first started download music for free -- that they were crooks. I told every record label I spoke with that they just lit the fuse to their own bomb that was going to explode from under them and put them on the street.

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---ing 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 SOME ARTISTS LIKE RADIOHEAD AND TRENT REZNOR ARE TRYING TO FIND A NEW BUSINESS MODEL.

That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on f---ing crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works?

SO WHAT IF MUSIC JUST BECOMES FREE AND ARTISTS MAKE THEIR LIVING OFF OF TOURING AND MERCHANDISE?

Well therein lies the most stupid mistake anybody can make. The most important part is the music. Without that, why would you care? Even the idea that you're considering giving the music away for free makes it easier to give it away for free. The only reason why gold is expensive is because we all agree that it is. There's no real use for it, except we all agree and abide by the idea that gold costs a certain amount per ounce. As soon as you give people the choice to deviate from it, you have chaos and anarchy. And that's what going on.

Reuters/Billboard

Gene can be such a pompous ass, and I both love and hate him for that. I love KISS, but I do think that they lost it when Gene began caring more about merchandizing the band than making decent music. Just look at his greed refusing to do a new album because people might download it. True artists don't care, they will work harder at getting people to buy their album. We're in an era where a lot of the "old fogeys" like McCartney, Bowie, Springsteen, Neil Young, Mellencamp and others are releasing some of their best works in 20 years or more. Instead of "well, people might download a new cd, so let's go on the road and play Born To Run and Born In The U.S.A. songs that people have heard too many times", that only made Springsteen work harder on releasing a great album. I love the Kiss of 1974-1996, but once they put the makeup back on, they became a joke that relies on endless Greatest Hits collections and playing the same tired 30 year old songs. Give me the Kiss of Revenge (with Bruce and Eric Singer playing the 70's and 80's hits wonderfully, but also with the band looking forward instead of to the past) over the Kiss of 2007 any day. They should have called it a day after the 1996 reunion tour, they returned with a vengeance and people were happy to see Peter and Ace back into the fold, but now they're more irrelevant than they ever were during the days of "Unmasked" or "Crazy Nights"

He's a dumbass. The music industry was taking advantage of people by overcharging for crappy ass CD's full with filler tracks. I remember buying CD's between 1995-2001 simply for one song!

The music industry was powered by the "singles" business back in the 1950-60's and it made stars out of The Supremes, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley. Why can't it be the same now? Beck is currently leading the trend by no longer planning to release full albums and opting out for singles instead! Bigger artists will follow suit.

If you think about it, the CD business isn't entirely dead yet. There's some artists out there who continue to sell millions and the reason for that is that they release albums that are good from beginning to end. Crappy CD's are flopping left and right!

Some recent successes:
Amy Winehouse, Back in Black
Pink, I'm Not Dead
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds
Christina Aguilera, Back to Basics
Fergie, The Dutchess
Beyonce, B'Day
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
The Killers, Sam's Town

^All those CD's sold more than 3-5 million copies from 2006 to early 2007. That's good enough. Plus, most artists make their money from touring. Christina, Justin, Beyonce, RHCP, and Pink (in the UK) sold out stadiums! The music biz is not dead.

2007 will do relatively well also. Kanye, 50, Carrie, Britney, The Eagles, and Chris Brown are headed towards multiplatinum already.

Gene Simmons is a moron. And Kiss is one of the worst rock bands ever. Enough said. :lol:

Oy vey. :rolleyes:

I wanted to point out Rihanna as an example. IMO, she's one artist that should stop releasing albums and focus only on singles. Her latests, Good Girl Gone Bad and A Girl Like Me and both sold poorly yet the singles have sold AMAZINGLY well. ("S.O.S," "Unfaithful," "Umbrella," "Shut Up and Drive" "Don't Stop the Music," and "Hate That I Love You" are all top 10 hits.)

2007 will do relatively well also. Kanye, 50, Carrie, Britney, The Eagles, and Chris Brown are headed towards multiplatinum already.

you're a little ahead of yourself with Britney. I'm hearing a lot of industry insiders expect Blackout to end up selling about the same amount of copies as 20 Y.O., American Life and Glitter did. Blackout is already doing the same trajectory 20 had last year, expected to debut at #1, but settled for #2 with about 290k sold, and then slipping to #7 the next week. With Britney obviously not planning to promote the album, I don't forsee any real boosts for the album since she's not doing interviews or planning a tour or anything, I'd concentrate on aiming for 1 million before 2 million.

But I agree for the most part, people will buy albums that they think will be quality and worthwhile, and it makes lesser artists run for the distance. I like J. Lo's Brave album, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's flopping so hard (it hasn't even hit 100,000 total I don't believe) because people have come to associate Jennifer Lopez with inferior albums.

I believe the death of the single was the beginning of the end for the industry to begin with and a major factor why people started downloading music for free. There were way too many one hit wonders in the 1990's who had one really big hit and a ****ty album to go along with it, and the companies withheld a commercial single so you'd buy the unmemorable album to go along with it, and people got fed up with it. Album sales have never really seen a major decline in England because people can still buy singles there.

Gene Simmons is a moron. And Kiss is one of the worst rock bands ever. Enough said. :lol:
you should check out beyond "Alive!" and the overplayed hits like Rock And Roll All Night and Shout It Out Loud, they had some really good stuff out there but the masses preferred it when they did simply songs like RNRAN. I think that was certainly an overrated song that didn't really capture them at their glory. They're definately one of my fave hard rock bands of the 70's and 80's (I think their absolute musical peak was when Vinnie Vincent played guitar for them in the Creatures and Lick It Up albums, they really rocked then, even tho it was pretty obvious they were copying Ozzy's stuff at the time), and I hate RNRAN with a passion.

I wanted to point out Rihanna as an example. IMO, she's one artist that should stop releasing albums and focus only on singles. Her latests, Good Girl Gone Bad and A Girl Like Me and both sold poorly yet the singles have sold AMAZINGLY well. ("S.O.S," "Unfaithful," "Umbrella," "Shut Up and Drive" "Don't Stop the Music," and "Hate That I Love You" are all top 10 hits.)
well, it's a double edged sword.

When you mean singles, do you just mean that you buy on iTunes, or singles in the sense of how ten years ago, you could go to the record store to buy Mariah or Janet's latest hit on a 2-track single or the remixes for a few bucks more? If you mean the latter, I'm all with you, but if you mean the former, I don't know if I'd want that since I am someone who does still like to tangibly own the songs on a CD, even tho I do have an iPod for it's convienience.

There's a rumour that an official big budget KISS tribute band is in the works, in other words, what's his face with the long tongue is turning into mad scientist Abner Devereaux from the TV movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park ('78) - He'll create KISS to destroy KISS.

well, it's a double edged sword.

When you mean singles, do you just mean that you buy on iTunes, or singles in the sense of how ten years ago, you could go to the record store to buy Mariah or Janet's latest hit on a 2-track single or the remixes for a few bucks more? If you mean the latter, I'm all with you, but if you mean the former, I don't know if I'd want that since I am someone who does still like to tangibly own the songs on a CD, even tho I do have an iPod for it's convienience.

But that's a nonissue with the younger generation. They couldn't give a hoot about owning the actual physical release. But coming from a generation that witnessed CD's easily selling 10 million, I agree with you. But like I said, the next generation will view it differently.

But that's a nonissue with the younger generation. They couldn't give a hoot about owning the actual physical release. But coming from a generation that witnessed CD's easily selling 10 million, I agree with you. But like I said, the next generation will view it differently.
that is true, but I am glad I do back every mp3 I download onto cd-rom discs that I don't have on a tangible CD as it is. If you just download a mp3 and don't back it up, you're screwed if you crash

^hey, external hard drives are readily available nowadays! Plus computers are now more reliable than ever.

^hey, external hard drives are readily available nowadays! Plus computers are now more reliable than ever.
it's easier to back up on CD-ROM discs when you have so much music. My iPod has about 48GB of music on it already and factor in all the cd's that are around the corner in the next few months like Janet, Madonna, Mariah, Goldfrapp, Kylie, Sheryl Crow, Shayne Ward, etc... so there'll be a lot more added to it

^You must be nervous about Madonna's new album. All of the leaked material has been sounding subpar.