Photo: Wenn
Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan has offered a dire summary of the current state of the music industry, saying that it is run by 'feckless idiots'.
In an interview with CNBC, Corgan explained that the music business itself must shoulder some of the blame for the dire state of the industry.
"The music business is mostly run by feckless idiots who do not subscribe to the normal [tenets of] capitalism which when they do, the business tends to work out well and stars tend to rise to the top, everybody benefits," he said. "But it is still a parochial business. It is run by thiefdoms way behind the times technologically."
He explained how major tech companies - such as Apple and Spotify - are better at realising the worth of the talent. "The tech world is just blowing music out of the water, but music and artists remain incredibly valuable to launching things," he continued. "Hence tech companies keep cycling back to music artists. Music artists need to figure out their true value in a free market, which they have been slow to do because you have that old model of telling artists they are not worth anything, that they are disposable - similar to the things you’ve seen in the sports leagues, and you are going to see that evolution happen in the music business."
Watch our interview with Billy Corgan below
The singer also described the industry as a 'Wild West' and said that the situation will only get worse. "You’re gonna see a complete disintegration of the business model. And a reforming. The problem is because artists are generally manipulated, it’s an old business model, you’re told 'you have no value, you have no value.' They’re slow on the uptake on how much value they have in this market place. Because when it comes to athletes and rock stars, those are two people who can sell a level of independence that works with marketers that no one else can sell… But music’s been slow on that because the old music business continues to control its diminishing share of the market."
He was cautious about Jay Z's Tidal service, specifically about how it was marketed as beneficial for all artists. "Although I celebrate the idea of him creating his own model it leaves a lot of people out. At some point you have to have winners and losers because that's the way it works. To try and sell it as an altruistic thing is disingenuous because it's not. He is taking his slice of the pie, which he has every right to do -- he is a powerful man and he works with powerful people. But by the way, I'm a powerful artist and I don't recall getting a phone call from him. But I get phone calls from other people and I have to make similar decisions. To sell it as altruistic - I don't buy it."
In perhaps the most damning section, he also tackles the monolith of Apple and Beats and how it is now the devices with which you experience music that are making money. "Who just made $3 billion for selling headphones. The future for music artists is in brand identification. Music will only be the lubricant to make the bigger deal. Once you saw that [Apple/Beats] deal made, it's over. The old model of selling plastic is over. By the way I don't remember getting a lot of checks for selling computers and telephones. I've helped sell a lot of computers and telephones, as have a lot of other music artists. At some point the market is gonna have to come around and pay those artists what they're worth or do what Jay Z's trying to do and break off their own deal."
Smashing Pumpkins' ninth album, Monuments To An Elegy, was released at the end of last year.
