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The Times They Are a-ChangeNIN’
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Apologies to Dylan on the post title, but we are definitely attempting to navigate some fast moving waters these days.
Trent Reznor & NIN are the latest to bolt the music industry as we know it, joining Radiohead on the front lines of the assault on Business As Usual in the music industry.
From the NIN homepage today :
Hello everyone. I’ve waited a long time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.
We’ve previously posted the Burst Labs take on Radiohead’s experiment, and today’s news from NIN is part of the same Indie Artist Hype Machine with almost no relevance to your up and coming band or artist. Without major label machinery over the past two decades helping both NIN and Radiohead get to the pinnacle of success (at least where a rabid fan base is concerned), they wouldn’t be able to embark on this brave new venture.
You have to applaud creative thinking in the music business wherever you can find it, if for no other reason than to support genuine creativity in an industry so devoid of it in recent years. I’m fully aware of the depths to which a label can go to destroy a band’s art and credibility, and to milk every last cent out of their recoupable expense accounts, but for an artist who has clearly reaped the benefits of being signed as a major label recording artist you have to wonder if Mr. Reznor had thought through the possible alternate meanings of his lyric “Will you bite the hand that feeds?” [dh]
Matt says:
10/8/2007 -I’m already over this “established artists re-inventing the wheel” thing. IF (Chuck Norris emphasis on the if) a workable business plan arsies someday that allows an unestablished artist to market directly to those that would like AND pay for his/her/their music, it is just flat-out NOT going to be the brainchild of someone of Radiohead or NIN’s stature. I’m actually not chastising said bands at all, more scolding the music rags for making it something it’s not. It is not “The Death of The Music Industry”, or “A Brave New World in Music Marketing”, or “A Golden Path That Leads Toward The Castle of Socially-Networked, User-Moderated, Music-Lover’s Circle Jerk of ‘Damn the Man’ Music Economy”. It is bands that suckled at the music industry’s sagging teat spitting the mother’s milk back in her face.
Interesting? Yes. Buzz-worthy? Absolutely. A surreal glimpse into a world that defies all logic? Possibly. The future of the industry? Suck it.
The real innovation is bred by the lowly (and consequently bought and homogenized by the rich and bland).
God, I feel like I’ve been reading Nietzsche for a week. Someone do something cool that I can REALLY get excited about.
danielholter.com says:
10/10/2007 -[...] Burst’s opinion that artist-direct distribution is NOT some cure-all for every aspiring artist looking to succeed [...]
Matthew Gerring says:
10/21/2007 -So, on the one hand, Burst Labs is saying that NIN and Radioheaded needed the record industry to get them to stardom, but on the other hand that their retention of artistic integrity over the years is largely a fluke?
NIN and Radiohead didn’t need the music industry, the music industry quite literally needed them. Without artists to make good music to sell CDs to make the label money, the label wouldn’t exist. The problem is that major labels are convinced that they, not artists, are the arbiters of what good music is and ought to be.
The recording industry won’t tank. Not anytime soon. But whatever the industry craps out is going to be irrelevant within the next ten years to anybody that cares about music.
I heard some bullshit on the radio the other day about how I found out about my favorite artist on the radio first.
My favorite bands don’t get radio play. Major labels turn great bands into t-shirts that I make fun of. Trent Reznor’s genius as a producer will now fully be unleashed. God Bless The Internet.
Matt says:
10/22/2007 -If Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have all of this integrity and didn’t NEED the record industry to get where they are today, then why did they sign with a major label? Did they, out of the kindness of their hearts, take pity on the labels that NEEDED them and bail them out?
Take a look at the wikis for Interscope and EMI artists. They didn’t NEED Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead. They did their job. They took a tangible product and marketed the snot out of it, making the music ubiquitous and profitable.
Do I dislike the major label system? Absolutely, but come on! If Trent Reznor had the integrity he has fooled millions of kids into thinking he has (I know, I was one of them), he would have put out music on his own little label, slogging along on tours to half-filled clubs, all the while saying “At least I didn’t give into the man”.
I almost hesitate to respond to your last statement. You seem awfully fond of Nine Inch Nails, and I’ve heard Nine Inch Nails songs on the radio. A lot. Trent Reznor made some of the most progressive industrial and subversive pop music ever made in his years with Interscope. Unless he never got to make his reggae album of Santana covers, I’m guessing he’s not going to surprise us any more now than he did before.
God Bless the Internet, indeed.
daniel @ burst says:
10/22/2007 -@ Matthew : you said “Without artists to make good music to sell CDs to make the label money, the label wouldn’t exist.”
I’m curious how this might apply to My Humps, Who Let The Dogs Out, or virtually anything by Nickelback. Are you saying these are examples of good music?
(I’m not even willing to state they AREN’T examples of good music - that’s an exercise in futility - just pointing out that your response does not hold water as some sort of precept for the industry as a whole)
Record labels, at least the majors, are great at one thing… building fan bases from which they can make money (or, MILK money… or, MINT money). A LOT of money.
It’s all marketing and promotion, almost nothing to with music.
Without the benefit of the marketing, pr, advertising, and fluffery of the major label machine, the artists you so dearly cling to as being full of ‘integrity’ would have been mired in obscurity for all eternity. Again, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, per se… something tells me that would have been fine for ‘true’ fans such as yourself.
It’s true that the distribution advantage the major labels had has been rendered null and void. But don’t pretend that NIN or Radiohead are THAT much different from Creed when it comes to accepting a ride on the train that promises to take them the farthest down the road to fame and fortune.
Matt says:
10/22/2007 -Also, don’t for one second pretend that Trent Reznor got where he is today by bucking the pop song system and writing scathing, blistering, anti-authoritarian music. He got where he is by writing industrial songs that people can sing along to. He’s a pop musician. There is, to me, no negative connotation in the word “pop”, but nevertheless, don’t make Nine Inch Nails out to be more than what they are.
Greg says:
10/25/2007 -I have one one thing to say, Hooker with a Penis.
All you know about me is what I’ve sold you,
Dumb f**k.
I sold out long before you ever even heard my name.
I sold my soul to make a record,
Dip shit,
and then you bought ooone.
I’ve got some Advice for you, little buddy.
Before you point your finger you should know that I’m the man.
If I’m the f**kin’ man then you’re the f**kin’ man as well,
So you can point that f**kin’ finger up your aaaaaaaaaaaaaass!”
Tool may not be the band they were at one time, thanks to Maynard and his seeming desire to become Roger Waters. But this song’s point rings true, at least is does to me. Any band that gets major radio airtime, sells out huge arenas and tours once every five years to support their new album, has sold out. Whether that has a direct effect on the quality of their music has more to do with their artistic integrity and their record deal than anything else.
NIN is a perfect example. Pretty Hate Machine is a great album, as is Broken and the Downward Spiral, everything since then (in my humble opinion) has been a steaming pile of shit meant to do nothing more than fulfill a record contract. Shitty record contracts have been the doom of many an original band or artist, and they will continue to be. But to say that major labels will only put out music that is good is subjective. I can’t stand Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Nellie Furtado, Chamillionaire, etc., etc., ad nauseum. However, there are a whole shit ton of people out there who do. I don’t think they make good music (although Ms. Aguilera has one hell of a voice), but they sure make a hell of a lot more money making that music than I do.
Same can be said for Creed, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Matchbox 20, etc… Record companies don’t care about artistic integrity, they care about music that will sell. Why do you think that labels signed acts like NIN, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson? They saw a market for that brand of music and went after it; if a label thinks there’s money to be made, they’ll try to exploit the opportunity, nothing wrong with that.
Radiohead and NIN are not reinventing the music industry, what this shows is that they trust their fan base not to screw them over, which may be a good assumption (as most “fans” of Radiohead I know did pay for their new album.)
matt @ burst says:
10/26/2007 -Maynard and his potty mouth make a pretty salient point, Greg.
“Don’t hate the playa, hate the game” doesn’t really apply to the music industry. If you buy the ticket, you damn well better be prepared to take the ride.
I like that you brought up the issue of “trust”, as it is one that I had not considered. Any band with as rabid a fanbase as Radiohead or NIN does place a lot of trust in those fans willingness to follow.
I was just watching “Fearless Freaks”, the Flaming Lips documentary that came out a couple years back, and Wayne Coyne brought up the fact that through their whole “Parking Lot Experiment, Zaireeka” phase, he was shocked and humbled by his audience’s willingness to trust him and allow him to do what he wanted to do.
I don’t think it’s a minor factor at all. As much as I may have ripped on Trent recently, I have to admit that one of the obvious differences between, say, NIN fans and Creed fans is their faith in their “leader”. It’s gotta give an artist so much confidence to know that his fans (for the most part) want innovation, not a retread of a previous success.