Below are selected quotes from the article: Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznor’s Innovative Run
Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are so in the forefront it’s almost scary. Not just when it comes to music distribution, but digital communication — and they are music artist. I wish that people in the digital industry were as innovative and were less scared of making mistakes. The internet is a playground. So play in it.
Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry
“Anyone who’s an executive at a record label does not understand what the internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact — no idea,” he declares. “I’m surprised they know how to use e-mail. They have built a business around selling plastic discs, and nobody wants plastic discs any more.”
“They’re in such a state of denial it’s impossible for them to understand what’s happening,” Reznor says. “As an artist, you are now the marketer.”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think music should be free,” Reznor says. “But the climate is such that it’s impossible for me to change that, because the record labels have established a sense of mistrust. So everything we’ve tried to do has been from the point of view of, ‘What would I want if I were a fan? How would I want to be treated?’ Now let’s work back from that. Let’s find a way for that to make sense and monetize it.”
“I doubt I’ll ever pay someone to do a remix again,” Reznor says, “because there’s some amazing stuff just coming out of bedrooms.”
So for the higher-quality offerings, Reznor turned to BitTorrent — “the domain of pirates,” he acknowledges, “but it’s also a great technology that is free.” Pirates are no longer the enemy anyway: “Our battle is against download costs.”
“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract,” he says. “I said, ‘Wait — you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the fuck made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they’ll sign anything’ — like I did.”
If the labels had tried to connect with fans online instead of dragging them into court, he figures, the music industry wouldn’t be collapsing today. But no matter; he’s moved on.
“My quest in life now is to surround myself with smart, innovative people,” he says, “instead of the gangster types who have exploited artists over the years.”
The whole article: Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznor’s Innovative Run