Trent Reznor Gets it Right… OR… Josh Hathaway Buys His First NIN Record
Tom, I’m blaming you for this!
I bought my first Nine Inch Nails record yesterday. I’ve never been a fan, mostly because Trent Reznor’s voice was a bit much for me and I really couldn’t connect with most of the lyrics. I was thought the music sounded cool but I couldn’t get past the voice and the words so I never got on board… until now.
Ghosts I-IV is an instrumental record and Reznor has taken the Radiohead model and perfected it. After reading Tom’s article about the exciting distribution method and NIN music minus the aspects I enjoy the least, it was too good to pass up.
Radiohead released In Rainbows independently and online, allowing listeners to name their own price. It seems to have been a successful model and I like what they did but had a few minor gripes. What I didn’t like was that they only offered the album in MP3 at 160 kbps if you chose to buy it via download. Granted you could name your own price (or not pay for it at all) so it’s tough to argue with the value but I still wasn’t thrilled with only having lossy MP3. Radiohead later released the album on CD.
Reznor is giving fans many, many more choices and that’s where I want to see music go. I don’t want exclusively physical distribution (CDs, vinyl) nor do I want exclusively digital. I especially don’t want to see fans limited to lossy formats exclusively. Radiohead offered the CD or the MP3. Here’s what Reznor is offering:
- 1/4 of the album in MP3 format FREE. There are 36 tracks on Ghosts and you can have the first 9 tracks free from the web site.
- The full album in MP3, FLAC, or Apple Lossless for $5. FLAC is a lossless format popular with listeners and as the name implies so is Apple’s Lossless. You can have 36 CD-quality tracks for $5 or you can choose the MP3. Both FLAC and AL can later be converted to a lossy format if your iPod is running out of room.
- For $10, you can have the downloads now in any of those three formats and you’ll get the album shipped to your door on 2 CD. Be forewarned.. shipping is $6.99 for this option and that does jack the price up a bit but this is still a great deal. This is the option I chose. I downloaded the set in AL and the CDs will be here next month.
- You can get the downloads and the 2CD plus two special DVD for $75. The first DVD is the multi-tracks of the album, allowing you to remix the songs and deconstruct the album however you see fit. You also get a Blu-Ray DVD of the album in HD-quality audio. Very cool.
- For $300 you get all of the above plus vinyl and Trent will personally sign the set. This version comes out in May and will be strictly limited to 2,500 copies.
Choice. That, my friends, is what music fans want and what the industry has been so painfully slow to recognize. They first did everything in their power to kill digital distribution. When that ultimately failed they decided to offer digital at a price, but on their own terms full of restrictions. Each subsequent digital offering came with fewer restrictions but never embracing freedom of choice for listeners.
Value. That’s another missing idea in the music industry. With CD sales declining, music executives have sought ways to squeeze more money out of the product rather than making them better values. They’ve tried offering “deluxe” editions, offering more music for money. What they needed to do was to lower prices to stimulate buying. They needed to offer more for the same or lower price rather than more for more. I continue to remember how many copies of Norah Jones’ CD sold on word of mouth and an $8.99 price point. People hadn’t heard it because radio wasn’t sure what the hell to do with it. Word of mouth, positive reviews, and a price that wasn’t quite so intimidating convinced fans to roll the dice and they were rewarded. People felt so good about the value they got that fans now pay full price for her work. A fan base was created by offering something new at a lower price. It worked. Why no one else has followed up on this model eludes me.
Quality. Too many major labels are putting out crap albums by borderline artists and people aren’t paying for it. Music execs have mistakenly believed that every person who downloads an album or song for free would have been a paying customer. Not all of these downloaders are criminal at heart who chose to pay nothing rather than full price. Many of them are discerning folks sending a message to the industry that some music is of such substandard quality no one would ever pay for it.
Choice. Value. Quality. These should be the buzzwords of every record label on the planet. Provide quality art, make it convenient for listeners to buy and listen to, and charge a price that reflects the current market. It will work.
Well done, Trent. I applaud the innovative distribution method and I can’t wait until the CDs join my downloaded version. I’ll be talking more about the music soon.
Filed under: Tags: Musical Musings and Random Ramblings, Norah Jones, Radiohead
Sweet. I love it when I unwittingly inflict something upon someone. Next thing you know, you’ll be buying his normal work just to check out the music and ignoring the lyrics like I do (seriously, The Downward Spiral is one of the most brilliantly constructed pop-metal albums of all time - if you can’t get lost in the details of the music alone, I’d be very surprised. It is absolutely fascinating to focus on the tiny bits that make up the music.)
I so wish you’d flipped “Choice. Value. Quality.” around. You know: “Quality. Value. Choice” - in other words, QVC, my mom’s favorite channel.
I didn’t know QVC was an acronym. That channel annoys my wife. I’m lucky in that — and so many other — regards.
I love inflicting music on others, intentionally or not. It’s why I’m here. I’m infected by Ghosts I-IV.
Reznor pretty much lost me with everything after Pretty Hate Machine. i’ve heard The Downward Spiral but it’s just not to my liking….to dour and i dunno.
still, i love the whole idea of what he’s doing now and give the 5 minutes of really cool stuff that i downloaded and listened to last night, i’m definitely gonna pick this up.
Josh, if you are just looking for some more of the the good NIN instrumentals, I recommend:
• “The Mark Has Been Made”, “Complication”, and “Ripe (With Decay)” from The Fragile (right)
• “Just Like You Imagined”, “Pilgrimage”, and “La Mer” from The Fragile (left)
• “A Warm Place” from The Downward Spiral
Favorable vocal stylings or not, Reznor’s production value has always been top of the line. I hope you have the chance to check them out. Maybe you might even warm to some of the vocal tracks.
There’s also a bunch of instrumental mixes of older stuff made by Trent at the NIN remix page that you can download for free. (mp3 only, but 256kbps.) Sign up, log in, and look for the stuff with “instrumental” in the title, and if it’s by TRENT_REZNOR, those are the real deal. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
I still can’t believe Saleski can’t dig The Downward Spiral, especially since he’s not a lyrics guy. Ignore the lyrics and it’s just an amazing piece of work. Like I said, so many layers of stuff going on. Never heard anything like it before or since. It’s been fascinating me for almost 15 years.