Smashing Pumpkins frontman, now wrestling executive, Billy Corgan says the music business is run by “feckless idiots”.
A clean shaven, suit wearing Corgan is now the Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for TNA Wrestling.
This week he appeared on CNBC as part of his new role.
Corgan articulated the current state of the music industry saying, “The music business is mostly run by feckless idiots who do not subscribe to the normal attendance to capitalism which when they do the business tends to work out well, stars tend to rise to the top. Everybody benefits. But it is still a peroquial business. It is run by thiefdoms way behind the times technologically”.
Corgan says the real rock stars are in the tech world. “The tech world is just blowing music out of the water,” he said. “Music and artists remain incredibly valuable to launching things. Hence tech companies keep cycling back to music artists. Music artists tend to work 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. What you have seen happen in sports leagues you are going to see that evolution happen in the music business”.
One of those new tech / music giants is Jay-Z who recently launched the new streaming service Tidal. Corgan says it isn’t as honourable as the initial hype would have you believe. “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 its not. He is taking his slice of the pie as he has a right to do. He is a powerful man and he works with powerful people. But I’m an artist and I don’t recall getting a phone-call from him. To sell it as altruistic I don’t but it”.
As for the future of the music business, “You are going to see a complete disintegration of the model and a reforming,” Corgan said.
Watch The Billy Corgan CNBC interview
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