VIDEO: Trent Reznor on NIN”s Buisness Model, Future of Music

Notes that the “old record labels are dead, that music will always be free on the Internet so bands must learn to embrace that fact, and also hints at a new system, which is still “in its infancy,” he’s creating that would allow artists to distribute their music without having percentage taken from them.

NIN frontman Trent Reznor sat down with Digg.com founder Kevin Rose recently and answered a number of questions posed by the Digg community for the Digg Dialogg series.

NIN has long been at the forefront of artists looking to succeed in the file-sharing age where digital music has essentially become a free commodity. Over and over NIN has given fans free album downloads in order to spur concert ticket sales, and in turn perhaps t-shirts or other merchandise sales, while simultaneously offering die-hard fans limited edition physical albums that include things like HD concert footage or are hand signed by Reznor himslef.

“I can give you free music, and in my opinion, it may contribute to more people showing up to a show,” he says. “It’s not up to me to give you free music, it’s free anyway, you know for anybody that wants to admit it. Pretty much any piece of music you want is free on the Internet anyway.”

The first question posed asked why NIN hadn’t “embraced advertising as a business model,” for example hosting ads on the torrent tracker pages it posts on The Pirate Bay instead of letting them get all the revenue.

Reznor said that’s a possibility, especially considering it’ll need a revenue stream to support NIN operation for like things like it’s website if it decides to take a hiatus, but he’s sort of weary of the idea.

“Don’t you see enough ads?”

That’s not that he’s against the idea, it’s just that he wants to make it as unobtrusive as possible in order to retain a quality relationship between it and fans.

“I’d like to keep funneling money into the R&D and the development of the site, and with no, nothing coming in, it’d be nice to get it self sustenant in some way,” Reznor noted. “But, it’d really be a matter of feeling out what feels right. There’s lots of opportunities to make money, but it shouldn’t always be about making money.”

Amen. Something often forget about the music biz is that bands are music ARTISTS not music EXECUTIVES. Though livelihood is important and its essential that fans do what they can to support them and ensure they can keep putting out good music, if money is all a band is concerned with then it’s sure to have a short shelf life.

“We’re in between business models,” he continued. “You know, the old record labels are dead, and the new thing hasn’t really come out yet. So, I’m hoping that whatever gets established puts a lot more power in the hands of artists and more revenue.”

In fact, he mentions that he’s been talking to some artists about building an infrastructure, which is still “in it’s infancy,” that would allow artists to distribute their music without having a percentage taken from them. He says it’s needed so long as record labels refuse to adapt.

“I know the people running these labels and they don’t know what’s going on,” Reznor adds.

Reznor also notes what artists do or do not need a record label.

He says that if you want to be a sort of “Justin Timberlake-esque or American Idol-esque artist mainstream superstar” you need a record label’s bankroll and marketing power, their “permeation in the market.”

But, if you are “trying to change the world when you play music,” it’s your passion, and you have a unique sound that’s not heard on the radio, then you’ll want something different.

“If you have nothing in common with American Idol, and you don’t want to be The Pussycat Dolls, then you really don’t want to be on, certainly a major record label,” he adds.

Why? Because he says that all a record label is concerned with is profits, they only see an artist as a “means to make revenue.”

“At every fork in the road that will be what’s put first,” he comments.”Not your longevity, not your vision. How can we make money from you.”

In the end, Reznor’s latest interview once again comes back to what Techdirt’s Michael Masnick has noted previously in his case study of the band.

Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

It’s not a hard equation to figure out which is also what makes this latest interview with Reznor so fascinating and refreshing. He is like the music muse of our age and the people who should be listening most – record labels – don’t seem to care. Perhaps that’s all for the best. So long as other artists, like the seemingly born again artist Lars Ulrich, who said he looked “forward to sitting down and talking to him about what’s on his radar,” do that’s all that matters.

I’ve included the whole interview below. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you watch it.

His honesty is a refreshing respite from an industry that has been spewing nonsense about how everybody but themselves are to blame for reduced profits when the truth is they don’t even know what it is they’re selling anymore.

If you care at all about music, and want to hear what a TRUE ARTIST has to say about the music biz, grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, kick up your feet, and prepare to be enlightened. I mean it.

“All hail King Reznor!”

jared@zeroapid.com

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