Veteran rocker Kristin Hersh has little sympathy for the ailing global record industry, insisting: "Music should always have been free."
The music industry is suffering the biggest crisis in its history with profits plunging as a result of cheap downloads and illegal online file-sharing.
But Throwing Muses frontwoman Hersh is not bothered by the lack of money being made by major labels through record sales, because she's adamant industry bosses have brought it upon themselves.
She tells Uncut magazine, "Music should always have been free. Making money out of it is what has created these quasi-televangelist rock stars. What has been killing music, what has devalued it, is style over substance. The industry might not have collapsed had they not decided that only lowest common denominator bulls**t would make money and was worth investing in."