

Gene Simmons: Rock is dead, file sharing killed it - ilamont
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/gene-simmons-future-of-rock?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_85172828

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dobbsbob
Horribad commerical glam rock is dead, there's probably more bands than ever
right now my local concert listings section is 7 pages long clearly people are
still making music.

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tsarzen
I'm pretty sure rock died in the 80s. If anything file sharing will help
revive it.

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lazylizard
someone guide him to setup a patreon account or kickstarter project pls!

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alexis
Exactly what was going through my head when I read this article.

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Alupis
Pathetic imho - music (or rock) is not dead because people shared files... I'd
argue it's stronger than ever. What died was the old-school business model of
how to monetize music -- and new business models have sprung up like Pandora,
Spotify, etc.

Music is an experience. In order to have an experience one must consume large
amounts of music. No sane person is going to own 10,000 songs @ $.99 each ~
$10,000 sitting on their hard drive. That is just unrealistic. Concerts,
swag/merch, etc are a better way to fund music, or via services like Spotify
that remove ownership and change the monetization structure (why do I need to
own a copy of a song? why not just charge me a very small amount every time I
hear it - ad-supported music is a form of charging the consumer).

Not to mention there is a large argument and some evidence that file sharing
did nothing at all to the industry since the people pirating files were not
going to purchase the music anyways -- as-in their two options were pirate the
music or don't have it at all. (I'm not condoning piracy, just pointing out
that a large amount of piracy is not actually monetarily hurting the industry
like is claimed because that money would not have entered the industry
anyways). And in some cases, piracy has been proven to _help_ the music
industry -- such as Metallica (and many many other bands) becoming famous off
of bootleg tapes. There is an argument to be made that they would not have
come to critical mass if everyday joe did not have access to the music.

Services like Pandora and Spotify have introduced me personally to artists I
would never have considered before - and now I support said bands when they
come to town on tour or buy purchasing merch like t-shirts, etc.

When KISS comes to town... you bet I'm going to the show.

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cheez
> Services like Pandora and Spotify have introduced me personally to artists I
> would never have considered before - and now I support said bands when they
> come to town on tour or buy purchasing merch like t-shirts, etc.

I think this is the difference someone like Gene Simmons is overlooking. He
and his band are one of a gazillion bands just like they always were, but with
one difference: the other bands have much more exposure now due to these new
services.

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A_COMPUTER
All Simmons sees is the money he would have made had there not been file
sharing, and so everything is bad. He is is not paying attention to how people
are making money making music today in the same sort of environment, I suppose
because that has no impact on his personal revenue.

