Gene Simmons Slams Music Industry’s “Lack Of Balls”

How should the music industry have tackled illegal filesharing? Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has some blunt ideas.

“The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn’t have the balls to go and sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded a clip, so now we’re left with hundreds of people without jobs” he said at the MIPCOM conference this morning.

“All of us are in something called showbusiness. And in the music business, which is part of show business, actually think it’s just music or show. They forget it’s a business.”

And there was more. “It is a business. You have a fiduciary duty to your own butt to make sure you maximise any potential and minimise any exposure. Make sure your brand is protected, be litigious, sue anybody – take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line!”

For more wisdom from Simmons, check the liveblog of his MIPCOM session, where he waxed lyrical on branding and his new TV activities.

Source: Music Industry Report