Simon Cowell (far right) along with fellow 'American Idol' judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. (File photo)

Simon Cowell says the ailing music industry has to become thinner and meaner to survive.

"I think you have to be much leaner, I think you need less staff, and I think you have to concentrate more on the talent and the songs than you do on promotion and marketing," said the infamously blunt American Idol judge, whose wildly popular TV show returns with a new season next Tuesday (CTV, Fox).

"That's a very, very short answer to it, but that's the headline."

Cowell is a long-time music-industry impresario whose company has the right of first refusal to sign American Idol contestants to recording contracts. While some critics have lamented Idol's questionable influence on the music scene, Cowell said his highly-rated TV series has been incredibly beneficial overall.

"One of the reasons I think American Idol is such a good thing for the recording industry is it has made people at home interested in music again," Cowell said. "For me personally, I don't think anyone ever is going to get tired of music. I think they just get to a point where, if they don't like what they're trying to be sold, they'll stop buying records.

"We (Cowell's company) actually are selling more records in the past 12 months than I've ever sold before. It sounds like a cliche, but I think it's true: You genuinely have to give people what they want."

Cowell touched on a wide variety of subjects during a media conference call yesterday, including: His admiration for Dancing With The Stars (ABC/CTV); his lack of surprise that former Idol winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks have been dropped by their record companies due to poor sales; and his reaction to recent comments by American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, who described the relationship between the three Idol judges -- Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson -- as "childish, pitiful, the same as every year."

"Was he talking about his relationship with us?" Cowell said. "Well, let me return the compliment to Nigel, because that's how I would describe my relationship, or our relationship, with him, childish and pitiful. I'm kidding, there, by the way.

"But (the relationship between the three judges) certainly is not pitiful. I don't think it's childish. It can be a bit acrimonious at times. But that's what happens when you've worked together for seven years. We're not going to sit there like three robots and be told what to do.

"I think we all find the audition sequence harder as the years go on, because it's torture. You can become a bit argumentative or emotional. But to describe us as pitiful, certainly someone in (Lythgoe's) position shouldn't be describing us like that."