Music

Billy Corgan won't stop bullying the poor little music industry

by Jeremy Mersereau

Alex Jones regular, pro-wrestling maniac, and conspiracy lover Billy Corgan has some harsh words about the state of the modern music industry. Again.

“The business is mostly run by feckless idiots, who do not subscribe to the normal tenets of capitalism,” the Smashing Pumpkins frontman told CNBC’s Squawk Alley, which until today I thought was some kind of parrot review show. “It’s run by thiefdoms, way behind the times technologically. The tech world is just blowing music out of the water. Music artists in particular remain incredibly valuable to launching things, which is why tech companies keep cycling back to them.”

While it’s interesting to hear it from someone who achieved his success during the grunge breakthrough and its attendant massive contracts, anyone who thinks this is groundbreaking stuff should realize it’s 2015, and yes, this has kind of been the general state of affairs since roughly 2001.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman also had some thoughts on the Jay-Z branded sorry, “owned” streaming service Tidal. “It leaves a lot of people out. To try and sell it as an overt, altruistic thing is disingenuous. He’s taking his slice of the pie – which he has every right to do.” This much we agree on, at least. Also disingenuous: saying Tidal will “change music history” when the only difference is its millioanires board meeting minutes will contain a greater amount of the word “heezy.”

“By the way, I’m a powerful artist, and I don’t remember getting a phone call from Jay-Z” Billy added. Free piece of advice, Billy boy: if you have to say it, it probably isn’t true.

Watch Billy sound off on the disappointingly non-parrot-branded Squawk Alley here.