Gene Simmons says music fans who stream are the ones killing their favourite bands

Gene Simmons is always reliable when it comes to a great quote or ten, and this was certainly the case on the recent Thunder Underground podcast when he was asked his opinions on Spotify.

He wished the streaming service luck, while adding that he is not a supporter of it himself. He then points out how Radiohead’s ‘pay what you want’ scheme backfired, before railing against younger music fans who don’t understand that the music business is, well, a business. It’s a well-presented argument, even if the term ‘cumstain’ is used at one point.

“Good luck to ’em [Spotify]. I am not a supporter”, he begins, after being asked his opinion on the service. “I do believe in free market economy — supply and demand and all that kind of stuff — and I support Taylor Swift and Metallica and anybody else who doesn’t wanna play the game; The Beatles didn’t wanna play the game for a long time.”

Look, it doesn’t affect me, I’m a rich bastard. I do well. By some standards, I’m rich and famous and all that stuff. By Warren Buffett standards, I couldn’t pick a booger of the floor for him; actually, I can. But it’s all relative. However, none of this affects me. It doesn’t. I make a living. We have our fans, they show up, that’s great. We sell truckloads.

“We outsell The Beatles and Elvis on licensing and merchandising combined, as well as any other ten bands put in there. But imagine you’re a new band and you have your passion and your music and you really love it, you can’t do it. There’s nothing else. They can’t show up live, because they don’t know who you are, so somehow you’ve gotta get the music out there.

“But if you wanna earn a living, you can’t get the music out there. So you’re living in your mother’s basement, you have to have a day job and the kids get your music for free. ‘I’m just promoting my live shows.’ It doesn’t work. And the people that killed all the new bands are the fans themselves. It wasn’t corporate America, it wasn’t aliens from space. The people that killed the music they love are the people who love the music.

“Remember, Radiohead put out a record: ‘Hey, pay what you wanna pay.’ They did it once, didn’t they? It doesn’t work. Charge people. Make them pay. Make a cross, draw a line in the sand. This is commerce, and that’s charity. Once you get your money and all that stuff, then you can decide if you wanna do charity. Or advertise it as charity: ‘What I’m about to do? Charity.’ But I don’t want somebody else deciding when I do charity or how much I’m giving.

“Did you ever heard a freckle-faced kid go, ‘Hey, you’re too rich. You don’t need that money.’ Listen, bitch, I didn’t ask your opinion. I’ll let you know what money I need and what I don’t need. I don’t need some kid who hasn’t wiped his first cumstain off his leg to tell me what I need in my life.”

Listen to the entire podcast, below.