KISS was made for lovin’ you. And its avatars will too

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a garage-band full of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. A bruising black eye in South Korea. Pity [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a garage-band full of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - A bruising [black eye]( in South Korea. - Pity the poor [underpaid CEO](. - Xi’s one big, [unhappy family](. - A billion [paper ballots](, anyone? - [Hybrids]( won’t save the planet. - M&A is [good math](. - [Boohoo]( for Britain (and its consumers). But Will Other Bands Play On? The day after Gene Simmons announced he was selling the KISS brand (kabuki-out-of-hell makeup, stage personas, insignias and all), an earthquake rattled New York City. Just saying. It’s an expectedly canny move from the 74-year-old rocker, [says]( Lionel Laurent. “Gene Simmons is one of the shrewdest marketing minds ever to wear face paint and lick a bass guitar. The KISS co-founder and his bandmates pioneered the original fandom (KISS Army), invented the speculative NFT (photos of the band without make-up that self-destructed in five minutes).” Now he may have gotten as much as $300 million for the entire kit from Pophouse Entertainment Group AB. It’s the same outfit behind the money-minting all-hologram stage show ABBA Voyage, which features the music of that aging Swedish pop group emanating from computer-generated phantoms of the singers in their prime. Mamma mia! I just realized this year is the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision with “Waterloo.” All that bodes well for KISS, which was formed in 1973 and concluded its final farewell world tour at the end of 2023. Simmons and the band have gotten out while there’s still getting to be got. Lionel points out that Simmons was always dubious that he and KISS — or anyone — would get the better end of any deal in a Spotify Technology SA streaming universe. And the rock star also predicted that young artists would be “slaughtered” by the platform’s business model. Now 15-year-old Spotify is struggling too, branching into podcasts, among other products in the search for growth. Investors are looking around for the next big thing in music entertainment. Says Lionel: “The price paid for the KISS rights shows a lot of hope being pinned on the market for everything that isn’t the actual listening bit.” Meanwhile, AI is threatening to steal everything from looks to trills be you superstar or backup singer. What can fledgling musicians hope for? Lionel says music streaming platforms may not be as rosy as they once were but they aren’t going away. “Subscription prices are going up,” he says, “but more artists are being demonetized at the bottom of the listening chain. Given streaming isn’t going away, new payout models or artist development funds would at least ensure a future pipeline of new talent.” As that 1979 Buggles song went, “Video killed the radio star.” Will holograms kill the Spotify stars? Paper Ballots for Nearly a Billion Voters? There’s a lawsuit in India demanding that the country’s electronic tallies for the election slated to begin April 19 be matched with paper slips. When the electorate is 969 million people, however, you have to take a deep breath. As it is, final results aren’t expected till June 4. How much longer will old-fashioned ballot counting take? But Andy Mukherjee says [the request]( isn’t unreasonable given what’s at stake in India. “A third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the pollsters’ consensus outcome, could mean a further tilt toward his divisive politics,” says Andy, whose previous column [noted](that, while Modi is very popular in the populous but impoverished north, the prosperous and tech-savvy south isn’t all that keen on his Hindu nationalist rhetoric. “Are almost 1 billion voters onboard with the idea of a Hindu nation or against it? There’s only one way to find out: a fair ballot that’s transparent to everyone voting and observing.” The world’s largest democracy needs to [clear away any doubts]( about its claim to the title. Otherwise, India will become further established — as the Swedish V-Dem Institute noted — as an “[electoral autocracy](.” Telltale Charts “Back when the electric vehicles revolution appeared unshakable and Tesla Inc. was valued at more than $1 trillion, few of us gave much thought to hybrids. But amid consumer wariness about EVs’ driving range and insufficient public recharging infrastructure, vehicles that combine a combustion engine and electric motor are back in fashion, at least for now… But governments should keep an eye on a subset of these cars, known as Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, because they often pollute more than manufacturers claim.” — Chris Bryant in “[Your Plug-In Hybrid SUV Won’t Save the Planet.](” “Ken Murphy, CEO of Tesco Plc, said he was seeing a “gentle improvement” in consumer sentiment. The landscape is certainly better than it was a year ago, when, despite some positive signs, UK shoppers were still in the grip of inflation. But we should still be wary of threats to any green shoots. According to KPMG’s Consumer Pulse Survey, half of the 3,000 people polled said they had been forced to rein in their non-essential spending in the first quarter, with eating out the most common cut-back. Improvements in [market researcher] GfK’s measure of consumer confidence have also stalled.” — Andrea Felsted in “[British Consumers Are Being Asked to Defy Gravity Again](.” Further Reading The problem with Netflix’s [3-Body Problem](. — Gearoid Reidy Thailand’s not-enough and [too many bodies problem](. — Daniel Moss A [victory](for climate activists. — Lara Williams When David is [Goliath](. — Howard Chua-Eoan The better [metaphor](for AI. — Parmy Olson What [UBS](feared in Switzerland. — Paul Davis Walk of the Town: The Afterlives of the Great Chefs High-end sushi counters have become such temples of silence that diners automatically go speechless, politely accepting everything the chef sets in front of them with a slight bow. So I was quite heartened to be part of a rowdy (though not raucous) evening at a small, polished sushi bar set in its own room in Evernight, a sleek izakaya in Nine Elms, about a 15-minute walk from the refurbished Battersea Power Station. The food was delicious and the chef — who is not Japanese — was very happy to get instant feedback from his customers, even as he provided us with the background stories for all the fish he was serving. The windstorms that swept through the UK in the last few days not only made fishing difficult — it raised the price of all that seafood. Restaurants have to watch the weather. All that talk — with more than a touch of pub joshing — was a reminder that sushi was street food before it became sanctified as some of the most expensive restaurant fare in the 21st century. It also recalled the great contribution of David Chang: Disrupting the white tablecloth propriety of New York City dining. Chang’s moved on to other things ([successes and controversies](). Even the greatest of chefs have to write new chapters once they’ve shuttered the restaurants that won them fame. Some go on cooking, in less grand style but to great effect. After a semi-retirement to his suburban farm, Sean Gray, who was executive chef at Momofuku Ko, Chang’s haute cuisine outlet in Manhattan’s lower east side, will be making an appearance in London toward the end of April at Planque, one of my favorite spots in the British capital. This weekend, Anita Lo will be reprising the favorites from her iconic Greenwich Village restaurant, Annisa, at a fundraiser for Common Threads, the New York-based education non-profit where she’s now a director. I was a regular at Annisa (along with other folks like [David Byrne]() for the 17 years of its existence. She basically taught me (and a whole generation of New Yorkers) how to eat well. I’ve written before about my friend Ferran Adria and his [many new chapters]( after closing the legendary El Bulli on the Catalan coast in 2011. The most astonishing new role yet popped into my email the other day: [Airbnb host](. He’s apparently redone a section of the restaurant (most of which has been turned into a museum) into a stylish suite, complete with a bed “plated” to look like his iconic spherical olives. He’ll be there to greet you and regale you with stories. Still, it’s not as convenient as a regular Airbnb: It’s only available for the night of Oct 16 and you’ll have to be the first to get to the Airbnb website when booking opens next week. But if you snag the reservation, it’s free. That’s a good thing: Cleaning charges for that kitchen would have been insane! Drawdown Ah-choo! I hope you’re down with the antihistamines. Here’s a little tidbit for the road. ”WAIT! Any allergies?” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send pollen-free advice and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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