Nine Inch Nails lay down a gauntlet

[jessecuster3]

This was posted on Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor's blog:

As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:

* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne's record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).
By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: "It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy."
So... I guess as a reward for being a "true fan" you get ripped off.

* The dreaded EURO Maxi-single. Nothing but a consumer rip-off that I've been talked into my whole career. No more.

The point is, I am trying my best to make sure the music and items NIN puts in the marketplace have value, substance and are worth you considering purchasing. I am not allowing Capital G to be repackaged into several configurations that result in you getting ripped off.

We are planning a full-length remix collection of substance that will be announced soon.

Source:http://nin.com/tr/


Now I appreciate that he wants to give back to his fans, but do you think he advocating music piracy? If so, why?

[Serik]

No. Trent is letting people know that it's not his idea to bilk the fans. Like the music exec said, the $35 AUD pricetag exists because there are people willing to pay that much. But everyone else says "fuck this" and pirates the album or forgets about it altogether.

[Spike-X]

do you think he advocating music piracy?

No, he's simply saying he can understand why people resort to that rather than paying exorbitant prices for music, most of which goes to line the pockets of fat, rich record company executives rather than to the artists who actually create the music in the first place.

[Paul McEnery]

This is the bit I loved:

"It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy."

Discount? What the hell planet is this guy living on? Eighteen bucks plus tax is ten bucks more than you're going to spend for the music on i-tunes, and fifteen bucks more than you'll pay on emusic.

All major record companies must die.

[Spike-X]

It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.

Well hell, if you're losing so much money with the Avrils and Britneys of the world, why put it out at all? You'll make more money, and people with actual taste won't have to listen to their shit. Everybody wins!

Or could it be that you're, I dunno...lying?

[Charles RB]

So... I guess as a reward for being a "true fan" you get ripped off.

Isn't it nice knowing what record companies really think of consumer loyalty?

[Captain_Video]

You know, very much like I say for Film Distribution.

Mr Reznor could always turn his back on his big mega bucks recording contract sell his stuff independently at a fair price and his hardcore loyal fanbase would surely follow.

It needs to be the big guns who start off the move away from corporate ownership for it to get any attention, like Image tried in the 90s with comic books.

If enough people would do this, in ten years the general public would be re-educated into how to buy C.Ds accepting the new system, the Artists get the money, the broken current systems eventually falls, media and marketing would have to listen to the artists, everybody is happy.

But being the first is hard and you would lose out on those millions.

So which is it Mr Reznor, art or money ? either help to change things, or collect your cheques and try not to be a hypocrite in interviews.

If enough people got together, said no more all at once and tried to fix things instead of complaining and taking the money ( having your cake and eating it ) the world could be changed in ten years or less.

( I am for the record a fan of Nine Inch Nails ).

[Ryan Day]

Trent has the option of not dealing with the big, greedy record company. He could put out his stuff independently, sell it on-line, tour affordable venues.

Instead he works with the horrible corporation and tells his fans he doesn't have any more options than they do. Oh dear.

I've also found that "full-length remix collection of substance" is almost always an oxymoron.

[Michael P]

This is the bit I loved:



Discount? What the hell planet is this guy living on? Eighteen bucks plus tax is ten bucks more than you're going to spend for the music on i-tunes, and fifteen bucks more than you'll pay on emusic.

All major record companies must die.

I like how he's saying "We know it's shit, that's why we sell it for less. You have to pay extra to get the good music."

[Jack Zodiac]

Trent has the option of not dealing with the big, greedy record company. He could put out his stuff independently, sell it on-line, tour affordable venues.

Instead he works with the horrible corporation and tells his fans he doesn't have any more options than they do. Oh dear.

I've also found that "full-length remix collection of substance" is almost always an oxymoron.

It all depends on what kind of contract he's under. At this point, though, he has more than enough money to start his own record label, start recording his own music in his own studio, and releasing it at his whims with his own pricing, online or in record stores.

Yes, fuck major record labels.

[Drew Van T.]

Well, if Reznor were to just make his own label, then nothing really changes about the industry landscape. Just one more, tiny little corporation added to it - perhaps one with better business practices than Reznor's former employer, potentially - but that's all it would be.

It's far more interesting that he keeps stirring the shit up from inside Big Capital, by putting something that belongs to a mega-corporation on The Pirate Bay himself.

[Rattlehead]

Trent does have his own record label. it's called Nothing Records. It's distributed by Interscope Records in NA, which really isnt' a big conglomerate label. The problem is that Australia has always gotten the shaft when it comes to music distribution, and he probably has no other choice to deal with the fat cats at Universal Music Group to get the album distributed there, or Australians wouldn't get Year Zero at all. I know finding a band on Sanctuary Records for instance over there is damn near impossible. It's more of an issue of one of the few distribution outlets in Australia being greedy and oppurtunistic, soemthing we comic fans know all too well. *coughDiamondcough*

[Shellhead]

It's too bad that Reznor didn't take a stand back when NIN were hugely popular, around the time that The Downward Spiral came out. I don't think that his throwing down the gauntlet now is going to make much of an impact.

[DDM]

If Mr. Reznor was serious, he would asked to be let out of his contract & start his own independent label. However, from what I've read, Nine Inch Nails has turned into much sound & fury signifying nothing; the gauntlet he fights with are big fluffy bunnies dressed up as vampires.

Oh, I'm scared. :rolleyes:

Record company: 1
NiN: 0

[DDM]

Trent does have his own record label. it's called Nothing Records. It's distributed by Interscope Records in NA, which really isnt' a big conglomerate label.

Nothing Records only exists an imprint for the larger record company. When Reznor dissolves his contract with his current company, Nothing Records will cease to exist.