TRENT REZNOR FOR PRESIDENT
(president of the riaa, at
least.)
For the second time today, my buddy Badger, ruler
of the court and keeper of the shop over at Scatterbrain, has inspired a post here at TWM.
Earlier today, he forwarded me an interview with Nine Inch Nails creator and
resident musical genius Trent Reznor, published last week in the Australian
Herald Sun
newspaper, that suggests the rock star should be
leading not only his own band but also his own record label. And maybe, just
maybe, the whole rotting, festering body bureaucratic that is the Recording
Industry Association of America. You can read the entire interview here, but great swaths of it are so good and so
inspired that I am compelled to reprint them right here, for your reading and
thinking pleasure.
Watch out, Cary Sherman. Here comes Trent Reznor. With teeth...
It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it.
If this had been 10 years ago I would think Well, not that many people are into it. OK, that kinda sucks. Yeah I could point fingers but the blame would be with me, maybe I'm not relevant. But on this record, I know people have it, and I know it's on everybody's iPods, but the climate is such that people don't buy it because it's easier to steal it.
I understand that -- I steal music too, I'm not gonna say I don't. But it's tough not to resent people for doing it when you're the guy making the music, that would like to reap a benefit from that. On the other hand, you got record labels that are doing everything they can to piss people off and rip them off. I created a little issue down here because the first thing I did when I got to Sydney is I walk into HMV, the week the record's out, and I see it on the rack with a bunch of other releases. And every release I see: $21.99, $22.99, $24.99. And ours doesn't have a sticker on it. I look close and, oh, it's $34.99. So I walk over to see our live DVD Beside You in Time, and I see that it's also priced six, seven, eight dollars more than every other disc on there. And I can't figure out why that would be.
Well, in Brisbane I end up meeting and greeting some record label people, who are pleasant enough, and one of them is a sales guy, so I say, Why is this the case? He goes, Because your packaging is a lot more expensive.
I know how much the packaging costs -- it costs me, not them; it costs me 83 cents more to have a CD with the color-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said, Well, it doesn't cost $10 more. He goes, Ah, well, you're right, it doesn't. Basically it's because we know you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy it. True fans will pay whatever. And I just said, That's the most insulting thing I've heard. I've garnered a core audience that you feel it's OK to rip off? Fuck you. That's also why you don't see any label people here, 'cos I said, Fuck you people. Stay out of my fucking show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. Fuck you guys. They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of shit that they pull off.
That [extra $10 is] not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have fucked themselves out of a job essentially, that now take it out on ripping off the public. I've got a battle where I'm trying to put out quality material that matters, and I've got fans that feel it's their right to steal it, and I've got a company that's so bureaucratic and clumsy and ignorant and behind the times they don't know what to do, so they rip the people off.
I have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this Let's wait three months bullshit.
Watch out, Cary Sherman. Here comes Trent Reznor. With teeth...
It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it.
If this had been 10 years ago I would think Well, not that many people are into it. OK, that kinda sucks. Yeah I could point fingers but the blame would be with me, maybe I'm not relevant. But on this record, I know people have it, and I know it's on everybody's iPods, but the climate is such that people don't buy it because it's easier to steal it.
I understand that -- I steal music too, I'm not gonna say I don't. But it's tough not to resent people for doing it when you're the guy making the music, that would like to reap a benefit from that. On the other hand, you got record labels that are doing everything they can to piss people off and rip them off. I created a little issue down here because the first thing I did when I got to Sydney is I walk into HMV, the week the record's out, and I see it on the rack with a bunch of other releases. And every release I see: $21.99, $22.99, $24.99. And ours doesn't have a sticker on it. I look close and, oh, it's $34.99. So I walk over to see our live DVD Beside You in Time, and I see that it's also priced six, seven, eight dollars more than every other disc on there. And I can't figure out why that would be.
Well, in Brisbane I end up meeting and greeting some record label people, who are pleasant enough, and one of them is a sales guy, so I say, Why is this the case? He goes, Because your packaging is a lot more expensive.
I know how much the packaging costs -- it costs me, not them; it costs me 83 cents more to have a CD with the color-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said, Well, it doesn't cost $10 more. He goes, Ah, well, you're right, it doesn't. Basically it's because we know you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy it. True fans will pay whatever. And I just said, That's the most insulting thing I've heard. I've garnered a core audience that you feel it's OK to rip off? Fuck you. That's also why you don't see any label people here, 'cos I said, Fuck you people. Stay out of my fucking show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. Fuck you guys. They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of shit that they pull off.
That [extra $10 is] not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have fucked themselves out of a job essentially, that now take it out on ripping off the public. I've got a battle where I'm trying to put out quality material that matters, and I've got fans that feel it's their right to steal it, and I've got a company that's so bureaucratic and clumsy and ignorant and behind the times they don't know what to do, so they rip the people off.
I have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this Let's wait three months bullshit.
Posted: Wed - May 23, 2007 at 03:49 PM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM