Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves'

nekrosoft13 · 05-24-07, 05:35 PM

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails lets rip at ignorant record companies to NEALA JOHNSON

ON stage at the Metro on Monday night, it seemed you're enjoying being a rock star again. True?

It's funny you'd say that 'cos that was not one of my favourite shows.

It went downhill at one point.

Yeah. I enjoy playing these days. I try to make the most of it and sometimes it's great fun and sometimes, like Monday night when it was crippled with technical problems, it made it not fun. I couldn't hear what was going on, s--- was breaking . . .

Fools in the crowd were yelling . . .

Yeah, mixed feelings about that.

I mean, if you want me to go off on a tangent . . . I'm kind of in a weird space right now. I'm not real centred. We've been touring for a long time. I went from the record right into the tour, nine weeks in Europe in winter, which I don't recommend in any circumstance for anybody. I'm moving. There's some stuff in my personal life that's up.

It must be an odd time then to have a new album, Year Zero, out?

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.

You're a bit of a computer geek. You must have been there, too?

Oh, 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.

Did you have a word to anyone?

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 colour-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said "Well, it doesn't cost $10 more". "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? F--- you'. That's also why you don't see any label people here, 'cos I said 'F--- you people. Stay out of my f---ing show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. F--- you guys". They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of s--- that they pull off.

Where does that extra $10 on your album go?

That money's not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have f---ed 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.

Given all that, do you have any idea how to approach the release of your next album?

I've 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" bulls---.

When your US label, Interscope, discovered the web-based alternate reality game (ARG) you'd built around Year Zero, were they happy for the free marketing or angry you hadn't let them in on it?

I chose to do this on my own, at great financial expense to myself, because I knew they wouldn't understand what it is, for one. And secondly, I didn't want it coming from a place of marketing, I wanted it coming from a place that was pure to the project. It's a way to present the story and the backdrop, something I would be excited to find as a fan. I knew the minute I talked to someone at the record label about it, they would be looking at it in terms of "How can we tie this in with a mobile provider?" That's what they do. If something lent itself to that, OK, I'm not opposed to the idea of not losing a lot of money (laughs). But it would only be if it made sense. I've had to position myself as the irrational, stubborn, crazy artist. At the end of the day, I'm not out to sabotage my career, but quality matters, and integrity matters. Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is.

Is the Year Zero ARG something labels will copy now?

Well, their response, when they saw that it did catch on like wildfire, was "Look how smart we are the way we marketed this record". That's the feedback I've gotten -- other artists who've met with that label ask 'em about it: "Yeah, you like what we did for Trent? Look what we did for Trent". They've then gone on to try to buy the company that did it to apply it to all their other acts. So, glad I could help them out. I'm sure they still don't understand what it is that we did or why it worked. But I will look forward to the Black Eyed Peas ARG, that should be amazing.

Year Zero (Universal) out now.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...006024,00.html

superklye · 05-24-07, 05:51 PM

Read that this morning. Good stuff.

Ninjaman09 · 05-24-07, 06:00 PM

Wow, Trent is the effing man. Awesome article. I want to go order 20 NIN t-shirts now just to support him.

ynnek · 05-24-07, 06:02 PM

heh.. Finally he only has 1 record left to do.. I remember reading about him bitching about that like 10 years ago.. And he still feels the same way!

superklye · 05-24-07, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjaman09

Wow, Trent is the effing man. Awesome article. I want to go order 20 NIN t-shirts now just to support him.

sarcasm?

Ninjaman09 · 05-24-07, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superklye

sarcasm?

Hell no, I totally support him. Especially since he decided to finally make a fantastic album.

superklye · 05-24-07, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjaman09

Hell no, I totally support him. Especially since he decided to finally make a fantastic album.

Okay...the 20 shirts comment kinda threw me.

Have you seen/heard HYPERPOWER!/The Beginning of the End live yet?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xZZ2fot4woc

That's from 5/18/07 in Tokyo. TBotE gets cut off halfway through, but diggity damn, HYPERPOWER! is awesome live.

Quick420 · 05-24-07, 06:08 PM

Reznor is no ignorant man by any means.Great read thnx,I'm off to d/load some old NIN

retsam · 05-24-07, 07:18 PM

i dnt like NIN but i have to say that this is a good read...i agree with him 100%..every other ****ing industry in america is told to change or die but the media conglomerates go cry to congress to make there potential customers thieves....grrrrr...the majors make me soooo made...

Q · 05-24-07, 11:00 PM

Quote:

But I will look forward to the Black Eyed Peas ARG, that should be amazing.

Thank you Trent.

Blacklash · 05-25-07, 08:34 AM

I believe artists get money from things like the shirts (not sure) and certainly from ticket sales. So if you like Trent, go see him live to support him.

**ViN86** · 05-25-07, 10:05 AM

i hope he starts releasing albums on the web like he said he would. i would buy it from him in a second. for that matter, i wish more artists would do that. it's totally feasible. just get some advertisements to help cover bandwidth costs and charge like $5-$8 for the album depending on the bit rate. that would be an awesome way to purchase albums. also, itd totally **** over the record companies. isnt it amazing how much freedom the internet gives?

Trent is ****in awesome.

05-24-07, 05:35 PM	#1
nekrosoft13 I'm Geralt Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Chicagoland, once a year in Poland Posts: 22,328	Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails lets rip at ignorant record companies to NEALA JOHNSON ON stage at the Metro on Monday night, it seemed you're enjoying being a rock star again. True? It's funny you'd say that 'cos that was not one of my favourite shows. It went downhill at one point. Yeah. I enjoy playing these days. I try to make the most of it and sometimes it's great fun and sometimes, like Monday night when it was crippled with technical problems, it made it not fun. I couldn't hear what was going on, s--- was breaking . . . Fools in the crowd were yelling . . . Yeah, mixed feelings about that. I mean, if you want me to go off on a tangent . . . I'm kind of in a weird space right now. I'm not real centred. We've been touring for a long time. I went from the record right into the tour, nine weeks in Europe in winter, which I don't recommend in any circumstance for anybody. I'm moving. There's some stuff in my personal life that's up. It must be an odd time then to have a new album, Year Zero, out? 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. You're a bit of a computer geek. You must have been there, too? Oh, 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. Did you have a word to anyone? 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 colour-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said "Well, it doesn't cost $10 more". "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? F--- you'. That's also why you don't see any label people here, 'cos I said 'F--- you people. Stay out of my f---ing show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. F--- you guys". They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of s--- that they pull off. Where does that extra $10 on your album go? That money's not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have f---ed 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. Given all that, do you have any idea how to approach the release of your next album? I've 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" bulls---. When your US label, Interscope, discovered the web-based alternate reality game (ARG) you'd built around Year Zero, were they happy for the free marketing or angry you hadn't let them in on it? I chose to do this on my own, at great financial expense to myself, because I knew they wouldn't understand what it is, for one. And secondly, I didn't want it coming from a place of marketing, I wanted it coming from a place that was pure to the project. It's a way to present the story and the backdrop, something I would be excited to find as a fan. I knew the minute I talked to someone at the record label about it, they would be looking at it in terms of "How can we tie this in with a mobile provider?" That's what they do. If something lent itself to that, OK, I'm not opposed to the idea of not losing a lot of money (laughs). But it would only be if it made sense. I've had to position myself as the irrational, stubborn, crazy artist. At the end of the day, I'm not out to sabotage my career, but quality matters, and integrity matters. Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is. Is the Year Zero ARG something labels will copy now? Well, their response, when they saw that it did catch on like wildfire, was "Look how smart we are the way we marketed this record". That's the feedback I've gotten -- other artists who've met with that label ask 'em about it: "Yeah, you like what we did for Trent? Look what we did for Trent". They've then gone on to try to buy the company that did it to apply it to all their other acts. So, glad I could help them out. I'm sure they still don't understand what it is that we did or why it worked. But I will look forward to the Black Eyed Peas ARG, that should be amazing. Year Zero (Universal) out now. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...006024,00.html __________________ Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum 195.62 = NeKro Certified driver, thats better than WHQL System Specs Say no to ketchup, use mustard

05-24-07, 05:51 PM	#2
superklye Registered user Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: MKE Posts: 18,505	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' Read that this morning. Good stuff.

05-24-07, 06:00 PM	#3
Ninjaman09 Takin 'er easy Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Jowjah Posts: 9,552	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' Wow, Trent is the effing man. Awesome article. I want to go order 20 NIN t-shirts now just to support him. __________________ Core i7 920 @ 3.2 \| ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 6GB Mushkin DDR3-1600 RAM eVGA GTX 285 SSC \| Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX Samsung 24" 244T Widescreen LCD

05-24-07, 06:02 PM	#4
ynnek Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,391	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' heh.. Finally he only has 1 record left to do.. I remember reading about him bitching about that like 10 years ago.. And he still feels the same way!

05-24-07, 06:08 PM	#8
Quick420 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,205	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' Reznor is no ignorant man by any means.Great read thnx,I'm off to d/load some old NIN __________________ :Gaming Rig: Asus P5N-D SLi E8400 Wolfdale@3.6ghz/TTBig TyphoonCooler 51c Orthos 3hrs 2xEvga 8800gt 512mb@ 725/1800/2000 181.22Forceware:::1xx.xx? Forceware 2x2gb Ddr2 1066mhz 4-4-4-12 1T 2xWD WD5000AAKS 500gb/sata300/ 1xSeagate 320gb Ide(tuuunz) X-fi Extreme MusicASUS VH242H 24"LCDWindoze Xp/Sp3:::Windoze 7 Philips DvD/Ram-Drive Logitech G25 3dmark06 17,898 Vantage 12,851 If the light is GREEN the trap is clean

05-24-07, 07:18 PM	#9
retsam northamericanspace***** Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 8,655	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' i dnt like NIN but i have to say that this is a good read...i agree with him 100%..every other ****ing industry in america is told to change or die but the media conglomerates go cry to congress to make there potential customers thieves....grrrrr...the majors make me soooo made...

05-25-07, 08:34 AM	#11
Blacklash 8^9^3 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Old Vizima Posts: 3,814	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' I believe artists get money from things like the shirts (not sure) and certainly from ticket sales. So if you like Trent, go see him live to support him. __________________ Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.96GHz (1.36v)\|Mushkin 998681 XP3-12800 (3x2GB) Intel BOXDX58SO (X58)\|Evga GeForce GTX 260 (711\|2300)\|DoubleSight DS-263N WD VRaptor 150GB HD (x2)\|Pioneer DVR-2920Q\|LG GH22LS30\|Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0 SilverStone OP1000-E\|SilverStone TJ10-B\|Thermalright U-120 Extreme\|VISTA HP x64 SP-2

05-25-07, 10:05 AM	#12
ViN86 Buzz Aldrin: A Real Hero Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 15,908	Re: Nine Inch Nails Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves' i hope he starts releasing albums on the web like he said he would. i would buy it from him in a second. for that matter, i wish more artists would do that. it's totally feasible. just get some advertisements to help cover bandwidth costs and charge like $5-$8 for the album depending on the bit rate. that would be an awesome way to purchase albums. also, itd totally ** over the record companies. isnt it amazing how much freedom the internet gives? Trent is in awesome. __________________ My Rig... Mobo DFI LanParty LT P35 \| CPU Intel C2D E8400 @ 3.6GHz on 1.26V \| Mem 2x2048 OCZ Titanium DDR2-800 \| Vid eVGA 9800GT, eVGA GT240 Superclocked \| HDD WD 640GB - WD 1TB \| PSU PC Power and Cooling 1000W \| Cooling Thermalright Ultra eXtreme 120 \| O/S Windows 7 Ultimate \| Display Dell 2407 \| Case** Lian Li PC-V1000W LG 42" 1080p/120Hz - 360 - PS3 - Wii Currently Playing: MW2 (360), Borderlands (360), Forza 3, Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2, Gears of War 2, Demon's Souls

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