New Nine Inch Nails "Ghosts" released under Creative Commons

[Rick Brewster]

http://ghosts.nin.com

Interesting to see what Trent is doing now that he's out of his record label contract. He's fully embracing free online distribution -- you can copy and remix the music all you want, as long as you give proper attribution (i.o.w. don't claim it as your own or remove his copyright) and don't make money off it. He's finding other ways of adding or creating value in order to make money, such as being able to order the CD's or a Blu-ray along with a sweet box/case and art book.

Seem similar to the license for any software you might be using?

Sounds to me like he's embracing the "ubiquity has value" mantra that I've had with Paint.NET for awhile*. Even though you might not appear to make as much money from each unit pushed out the door, everyone has access to your work and it's much easier to build popularity. If I'd come out the door selling Paint.NET for $50, I guarantee you it would not be nearly as popular as it is today.

* To give Trent his due credit, it's not like he's just now deciding to do things this way. It's obvious he's wanted to do this for a LONG time, and just had to wiggle out of his record lable contract first.

[david.atwell]

This is an awesome thing. Such a mainstream artist finally breaking the chains of the music cartel! Awesome. I hope more people start doing this- it would mean a new renaissance, I think; collaboration has always been the bread and butter of intellectual and cultural revolution.

[DarkShock]

It's about time someone posted here after 4 hours of nothing.

I really don't listen to N.I.N.

I've only listed to their song in the 300 trailer.

[david.atwell]

Oh, I very much dislike NIN. I just like that they're going to be released on CC.

[pyrochild]

I've never listened to NIN. But I do very much like AFI's cover of Head Like a Hole, so I'm going to give NIN a shot.

Being free helps

EDIT: AFI's cover is better than the original.

[Rick Brewster]

Right, the real discussion I'm trying to get going here is not about the music. It's about the business model.

Traditionally, record labels made money by selling physical copies of recordings. With rampant online piracy derived from zero-cost duplication and ever increasing storage and network capacity, this is heading towards zero profitability. Nobody wants to buy CD's if they can download the mp3 for free and not get into trouble. DRM-ified music is pissing everyone off because you buy it and then 6 months later your computer crashes and you lose the music you paid for. At least if I lose or scratch a CD I feel responsible

So what Trent Reznor is doing is completely embracing free distribution of the music. It costs him almost nothing* to distribute the music, which nowadays has zero incentivized value attached to it. Instead, he's finding other more clever ways to get people to give him money: an art booklet, signed LP's, etc. The other interesting thing that's happening is that people are fed up with the RIAA, and they see Trent as a vocal and influential figure giving them (the RIAA) the middle finger, and they want to support that. Some people on the digg article stated they were buying the $5 version for the specific purpose of providing that support.

The real trick will be to see if a new, upcoming artist can duplicate the (hopeful) success that NIN will have with this model.

Hmm, I smell a blog post.

* Speaking from experience, distributing files online (such as the PDN installer), is extremely cheap. I pay $155.80 per year for 1TB/month of bandwidth. My hosting costs are more than paid for very quickly through AdSense, Kontera, and donations.

[k.digennaro]

that is pretty cool, another band did this a few months ago, i cant remember what it was.

[Bobofthedead]

'Twas Radiohead's latest, the name of which I can not recall.

[The_Lionhearted]

Rainbows.

[Andrew D]

Rainbows.

However, some "fans" probably did abuse the fact you could pay a penny for it.

Anyways, what type of band are they?

*waits for a Phoenix Wright style courtroom silence*

[david.atwell]

Objection!

[MattBlackLamb]

Anyways, what type of band are they?

Rock / Metal, google is your bestest friend

Edit:

Are you talking about Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails?

[Andrew D]

Anyways, what type of band are they?

Rock / Metal, google is your bestest friend

Edit:

Are you talking about Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails?

NIN.

[Andrew D]

Anyways, I'm downloading the free quarter of the full package, and if I like that, I'll buy the rest of it.

Sounds like a pretty good marketing approach. Give people a trial, and then they can download the full if they like it, and for the long term fans, they can buy novelty sets of it.

EDIT: Moar plz.

[Rick Brewster]

Plus they make tons of cash on concert ticket sales, etc. The album music is really just a way to build a fan base of customers who buy concert tickets, t-shirts, and other "non-pirateable" goods. Now, the way I describe this sounds underhanded, but I promise it isn't

[Andrew D]

Plus they make tons of cash on concert ticket sales, etc. The album music is really just a way to build a fan base of customers who buy concert tickets, t-shirts, and other "non-pirateable" goods. Now, the way I describe this sounds underhanded, but I promise it isn't

It's a good marketing campaign, and it's working

Anyways, what package did you get of it, Rick? I don't think you got the $5 one :wink:

[MattBlackLamb]

Plus they make tons of cash on concert ticket sales, etc. The album music is really just a way to build a fan base of customers who buy concert tickets, t-shirts, and other "non-pirateable" goods. Now, the way I describe this sounds underhanded, but I promise it isn't

A band won't expect to make a particularly huge profit on a tour, there's a lot of cost involved, venue hire (yes I'm serious), transporting stuff (people, equipment, stage sets ect) & marketing, planing the tour (you need to make sure you're gonna go somewhere that you're gonna sell at least 85% + of the tickets & it also helps to plan a decent route). Merchandising will certainly help recoup the incurred costs, but ticket sales alone won't cover everything. Records are a great way to make money, sure, the initial costs are high (easily 500,000 - 1m in whatever currency you happen to choose (please bear in mind that this is a very rough estimate )), but once it's being played on the radio & you're getting your royalties in from radio play & CD's sold & MP3's downloaded (legally anyway) you can recoup the costs pretty easily, especially as a CD costs £0.01 to produce.

Cor, that's a lot of reading...