Trent Reznor Thanks For Helping To Screw The Industry That Made Your Dream A Reality

[CDS]

The industry that made Trent's reality no longer exist.

There are no world premiere videos on MTV anymore.

The talented marketing and promotional team of old at Trent's former label is nothing more than an internet promotion company now.

There are no more midnight releases at any record stores because there are none left. A midnight release on an artist blog page will do just fine.

The way the NIN release was offered is how it is supposed to be done by 2008 standards.

[Ironklad Audio]

This is the most brutal industry in the world and it's brutal because the decision makers are brutal

while the music industry is definitely extremely competitive and cutthroat, i would never go so far as to call it the most brutal in the world

the music biz has nothing on oil, diamonds, drugs, or any of a handful of other industries when it comes to brutality

and i'd have to say that i have no problem with people like NIN and radiohead giving away their album for free. they already have a dedicated fan base and millions of dollars in their pocket, and will be making more money through touring and merch revenue. did anyone ever think that maybe they're trying to give back to the fans that put them in the position they're in?

of course the whole give-it-away-for-free thing doesn't work for the up and coming artist, but even then, those who are just breaking out are going to have to find a way to make their $$ while still dealing with the inconvenient realities of today's market.

[ALL*MYTEE]

Producers of any product are more than free to do with it whatever they'd like--sell it, give it away, burn it, pound it down a rat hole. That's what makes us free and not slaves.

If he doesn't have any conflicting contract arrangements, I don't see the problem. He doesn't owe anyone anything--if anyone invested millions in him, they should have secured contracts detailing how they would be compensated.

As far as owing the industry in general anything--if it can't pay my bills, I'm not going to pay its bills--no matter what kind of a relationship we've had in the past.

Once someone gets the balls to raise prices, things will start to look up for the sickly music industry. Lowering prices isn't going to do s$%t.

[Sui_City]

Fuel,


meet fire.

NIN. Again.

Looks like Trent strapped one on.

Without lube.

And I'm in favour.

[ALL*MYTEE]

I love how people think lowering prices in an industry that's already failing is radical or rebellious. It can only be done by already established bands--and has only been done so far by bands past their prime (as judged by the market, not my personal opinion). No band will ever break out by lowering their prices--because price isn't preventing anyone from buying music.

These old timers can only do it for one reason: marketing. We're all talking about Nine Inch Nails and we wouldn't be if it weren't for how much it cost. The music is immaterial. (I don't think anyone's mentioned it so far. Nor did I hear much about it when Radiohead did basically the same thing.)

I guess by this logic, if Trent Reznor was a real rebel, he'd not only give his music away but also tour for free and work a side job to give kids t-shirts.

Less money for recorded music and more money for elaborate CD or vinyl packaging only means one thing: worse music and better packaging. Or, in more neutral terms, less time and money for musicians to make music and more money spent planning and executing packaging.

Or--if you like: less money for recording engineers and more money for graphic designers.

[steve.h]

I, for one, am all for the death of the "rock star". For some reason, every kid in the world thinks he/she should be in a band, regardless of actual musical ability or talent. Perhaps it's because you can walk into a guitar store with $500 and come out with a very usable home studio, or $100 for a guitar w/ amp and case. How can you value music as a consumer if it appears to take so little monetary investment to make it? Back when recording studios were recording studios, vs. the dumpy-assed "home studio" shit everyone's got now (including myself), and there weren't 30 different brands of guitar vying for the sub-$500 market, it LOOKED like it cost a shitload to make a CD. And it did.

Nowadays, bands can record themselves at little-to-no cost, and with a bit of talent and time, many don't even sound half-bad. It's really too bad that the industry seems to be siding towards the attitude that "everybody should make music!", which is where it is inevitably heading. Things like digital recording, auto-tune, quantization, etc. were created to make real musicians' and engineers' lives a little easier, but what they've ultimately done is contribute to the devaluing of music, both monetarily and in spirit. Nobody gives a shit if you're in a band, if you can play your instrument, or even if your songs are any good. "Musicians" are just regular people at this point. And regular people can't be rock stars in peoples' minds.

Hopefully, with the death of the 'rock star' dream, talentless retards will stop buying cheap knock-off instruments and writing god-awful trite bullshit songs that should never, ever have seen the light of day.

[EstateMatt]

hope free music haters are against minimum wage and for collusion. and if we get an oil company which wants to lower prices, I hope the rest of them bitch about how oil is going to go out of style.

same economic principal.

[djwayne]

Well, Trent isn't the only one experimenting with music download pricing...I've been watching the pricing on Amazon's download charts.... Led Zepplin had Houses of the Holy on sale for $5.00, it's now at $ 7.92, Green Day has an album for $2.99, 3 Doors Down has an album for $.99......I guess it's anything goes now.

Check out Amazon here....

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in MP3 Downloads. Updated hourly.

[darkwater]

Originally Posted by minipoodle

One problem now with labels, as Doorknocker said, is that most of the people in the business know little about music. But most of all, labels are looking for quicker but smaller returns, which is seriously hurting the quality of the music being released by them.

This problem is only...um....20(?)years old. The turn in the industry is exciting for the independent musician. For very little money, you can produce your own music and sell it online..and make ALL the money. Unless you are a musician that was fortunate enough to live on the level of a superstar, it was very hard to make money with the old model, because you begin your journey IN DEBT TO THE LABEL.

Change is good. The new way puts the business of music in your hands. What you make with it is your own solution/problem.

[Sqye]

.

wow, we all have SO MANY OPINIONS here.


i wonder how many of us HERE are actually making ANY money in the business now...

using ANY methods AT ALL.....

1% .....5%......10%...???........maybe this should be a poll...


and i'm not talking about raman noodles and 5 room mates money...

or spending 600 hours a month on personal writing, production and distribution
for a grand total of $60 a month in downloads...

or renting out your rooms / services for $35-$50 /hr. BEFORE expenses...


i'm talking about CAREERS that pay for education, retirement, children, student loans, health care, insurance, gear, transportation, mortgages, utilities, and DECENT to GREAT LIFESTYLES, etc.

.

[djwayne]

Originally Posted by djwayne

Well, Trent isn't the only one experimenting with music download pricing...I've been watching the pricing on Amazon's download charts.... Led Zepplin had Houses of the Holy on sale for $5.00, it's now at $ 7.92, Green Day has an album for $2.99, 3 Doors Down has an album for $.99......I guess it's anything goes now.

Check out Amazon here....

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in MP3 Downloads. Updated hourly.

NOTE : Apparently the 3 Doors Down cd was priced wrong, it is now at $ 8.99

[Sui_City]

And again...

nin.com [download]- lights in the sky

[lordmiguel]

Originally Posted by Sqye

.

wow, we all have SO MANY OPINIONS here.

i wonder how many of us HERE are actually making ANY money in the business now...

using ANY methods AT ALL.....

1% .....5%......10%...???........maybe this should be a poll...

and i'm not talking about raman noodles and 5 room mates money...

or spending 600 hours a month on personal writing, production and distribution
for a grand total of $60 a month in downloads...

or renting out your rooms / services for $35-$50 /hr. BEFORE expenses...

i'm talking about CAREERS that pay for education, retirement, children, student loans, health care, insurance, gear, transportation, mortgages, utilities, and DECENT to GREAT LIFESTYLES, etc.

.

ooooh, bitter?

sure there are a few here, but wha'd ya expect? you know the money is in the writing not the making of music. long live the statutory rate.

gearslutz.com (rank 47,471) - Web Site Audience Profiles from Quantcast

let's see, after you back out the wives who have corporate jobs with the healthcare and retirement accounts, people who are not in music full-time, i'd say your average person full time is about $20k per year. drop the wives and they're destitute with a serious illness.

and there's the few who are probably making well above that. probably not too many these days. legit anyways.

and you expected something different?

[Karmela]

Ok truth be told, im a huge NIN fan. Have been since Pretty Hate Machine and will be till the end of time.

But what Tent has done from this point is hurt no only possible sales he could have generated, but hurt the music game as never before.

Sure making money is all about what the music industry is all about, but when you get down to it, NINE INCH NAILS and Radiohead have had nearly 20-25 years of name recognition and fans all over the world.

Not only USA but Europe and Asia where fans die for industrial music, they love NIN. So why would’nt Trent ditch his label and start his own “Null Corporation” and begin to sell his stuff online.

If I had a fan base that was in the hundreds of thousands, or millions worldwide, I would ditch my record company a LONG TIME AGO!

Plus Trent may not have too much overhead. Think about it, the guy made “Year Zero” while on tour, and on a laptop. Come on, this just means the guy has a lot of products readily at his fingertips.

All in all the music industry is hurting, the only real money to be made is pretty much scoring a hit song on a soundtrack, or television show. You get money for doing that.

The only artists to make a good living off music is guys like Trent Reznor, Thom York, etc etc etc. But at the same time as these guys can afford it, newer bands coming out cant, they literally have to start making music “FOR FUN”. Forget profit, just make it for fun and move on.

I have friends in bands, signed bands, do they see the money? Not really.

Do newer bands have a budget to sit there all day and market themselves to the best of their abilities??? Not really

Everyone has to face the music, the industry is slowly if not, already comes to its knees. The internet killed business, not only for music, but marketing companies alike. Myspace created a great tool for bands with NO BUDGET to get their music out. YouTUBE made a great sit that catered to people who want to put up their videos and make a name for themselves…

LOL OK don’t believe me??? Who else would sing a song ( “Umbrella”) by an already signed artist that made millions off of it, sit there with a guitar, sing it and post it up but to find herself being signed with a label by Justin Timberlake just a few months after…

Come on, the truth be told the old days of going on tour, filling up the van and going to every dive bar in the US is over.

How often do we see HipHop artists going on tour?!??! Never and yet Lil’Wayne still sold 406,000 the first few days in the first week of his album debut.

Thanks to MTV and the fact they want to sell bull*hit reality shows to young teens, and sell million in advertising in commercials to companies, that’s why we have NO MUSIC ON MTV….

Oh well sorry, unless your POP/RAP then your on MTV, but forget about it. Rock and or anything having to do with that genre have died thanks to the bs happening in the world of “music business these days”

Trent is doing what he feels right… But the truth be told, he may feel that he has no choice.

The new cd is probably a compiled bunch of scraps from the With Teeth sessions. The cd sounds like it was created in about 3 days, and minimal time for “sound/design/concept/originality/”

The Slip was said to be a “gift” to the fans… That’s great Trent but you know the business bro, your fans will buy everything and anything you throw there way. This is not your best stuff, and not will ever go down in your collection of work to be the best stuff you have ever done.

Call it a time crunch or whatever, the cd just did not fit the industrial rock vibe he is known for.

And as far as buying the cd for better quality. Torrent sites everywhere had it up literally hours after he said there going on sale.

I hate what the music industry has become. I have a professional music background and an MBA. So I look and see things in a totally different way.

My business sense misses the record label industry, but my musician side loves the fact bands can put there work online for fans and audiences all over the world to make or break them

I love NIN and I think Trent is a genius, but I would rather see him set up a “yellow brick” road for new and up coming artists, so they don’t have to resort to sell themselves out in many peoples opinion to go and sign with a major label. I would love to see Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails take some time out and help new and coming bands, and in return they do the same, and so on and so fourth.