bye bye major labels.....

[Kris]

Trent Reznor Escapes His Label's Clutches
By Eliot Van Buskirk EmailOctober 08, 2007 | 5:36:16 PMCategories: People

Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) has joined Radiohead in turning on to internet music distribution, tuning in to his fans, and dropping out of his record label contract.

The news comes from Reznor himself, who posted the following note on the band's website:

"Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.

Exciting times, indeed."

Reznor had apparently been chafing under his Interscope contract for quite some time; most recently, he encouraged fans in Australia to steal his album because the label priced it too high there. It'll be exciting to see what sort of system he comes up with for distributing his songs -- most likely, he'll be watching the Radiohead situation closely when that album is released on Wednesday.

[heathen]

I have thought long and hard about this change in the industry and to me it means this. Bands and other artists are going to have to work twice as hard to get recognition and sales, they will have to tour and do a lot of shows to actually make a living. I guess this is actually going back to the 70's where a label would'nt even want know of a band unless they were touring and had a fan base.

For instance this hiphop artist I was working with, great voice and great flow, not bad beats but absolutely no fan base and was not performing live, I shopped him a license deal on his first album. The album got a 31/2 star review in "The Sydney Morning Herald" which is not bad for an unheard of artist, is on all the download sites such as itunes and when you googled him a year back the first 7 pages on google came up with this artist. We really created a bit of a buzz but......... JJJ would not support him and refused to give him airplay, because he swears most likely and sounds a little toungue in cheek gangsta like, supposedly its un-Australian, or was not doing enough shows for them to be interested. People at the J's did'nt get the style of humour, they are politically correct sticks in the mud.

Anyway giving this guy a deal was probably crazy on the labels part as there were no fans to really gain sales, you only really gain fans in the early stages by touring I guess.

Anyway we have never made a cracker yet out of this deal, so my thoughts are for young bands to work harder than ever, get gigs and lots of them, gain a fan base first before trying to release anything and just go it alone, you only need to sell a third as much product to make money without a label anyway now with digital distribution.

So many shows I've seen young bands over the last few years shoegazing while playing boring riffs with crappy drumming try to gain a following, usually they just suck so bad they don't have a chance, they are not entertaining. People want entertainment which usually involves exaggeration on the part of the artist playing, jumping around getting excited, writhing on the ground,showing attitude and finesse. If you aint got this, forget it, become an accountant.

The Rock scene is back in a big way and this is the time for bands to really get going on things, remember 5 years back even finding a live gig was difficult.

So summing all this up I reckon good bands have a better chance than ever of making a living from music through long tours, making great music, being entertaining and gaining support from other media such as film and advertising companies and most of all getting lots of airplay.

Regarding the Radiohead release I'm interested too how much people decide to pay for thier album if at all. When they tour they will make more from ticket sales, T'shirts and coffee mugs than from music sales, I think. Also the new laws regarding recorded music in pubs and clubs will make it cheaper to get bands than DJ's, which is a great thing.

Performance was where it all was at years ago and now it seems this will be the way again. They are all coming out of the woodwork too, look at all the old big bands touring, the royalty cheques must be thinning out, just give em $300 for a ticket and they will be set well into old age. So after paying $300 to go see your fav old band why not get home and download thier entire old catalog, the bands should even include this in the ticket price, so you get more than just a show. This is good business practice, goodwill and offering of freebies or discount is the way to keep a customer happy, make a customer feel ripped off and they will never ever give you another cent of thier cash.

Very interesting times, I just hope people will still want to pay for mixing.

Sorry for the long ramble.

[Text_Edifice]

wonder if Mr Resnor would be where he is without the labels support?

Totally agree that new talent has to really work to get recognition but then you also have the situation where jjj will pick up a non-performing bedroom act and put them on a main stage at a music festival for all of 30 people to watch. Instant fame but incredibly fleeting.

I reckon the live music scene is actually a really difficult one for a new band to break into - regardless of how entertaining they are. Venues want guaranteed sellers just like anyone else and are often (completely understandably) not interested in providing a proving ground for new artists.

Also, in Brisbane at least, the local live music scene just doesn't attract crowds. Venues have been shutting for years and not just because of noise restrictions. I've been to gigs with an international touring headliner that didn't draw more than 30 people and there's more than a few very well respected venues for whom making enough money to remain in operation is a serious concern.

It seems that sometimes new bands are expected to just magically materialise as fully formed entities without having access to the type of avenues - venues, radio, print media, etc - used by artists in the past.

But of course they don't need them - they've got myspace...

apologies for the rambling and sarcasm.

[Ausrock]

I have to feel that TE is closer to the reality than Heathen with his somewhat Utopian view of the current "state of the nation"..............."The Rock scene is back in a big way.............." ...................sorry Heath, but You must be living on another planet.

[Mark Bassett]

wonder if Mr Resnor would be where he is without the labels support?

You tell me
http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1503212 ... ails.jhtml

[Text_Edifice]

I'm thinking not, regarding both his financial situation and current market position.

should clarify 'support' - meant the promotions stuff and being a little bit sarcastic. Obviously all sorts of underhanded business practices when it comes to managers and labels - but that's pretty well established by now isn't it? along with the conventional wisdom that major label deals are often exploitative and encroach on recording artists financial and creative freedom.

I guess my experience suggests things are a little bit more complicated than the 'future of music' like scenario's that are being peddled at the moment suggest. Argument generally goes - artists should give their music away for free / receive royalties from net downloads, ditch the fat cat / dinosour record labels and make their money off touring.

There's definitely some valid observations and suggestions there and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out but I think the testing grounds are really the bands no-one's heard of yet and how they navigate the current state of play.

It's great if an established act decides to go indie or release an album for free but they've already had a name and identity forged through the machinations of the music industry.

There's a bunch of unknown indie bands who release their music for free into an oversaturated and largely uninterested market and spend their time trying to scrape enough recognition to book gigs, build their fan base and improve their live show. I would guess that most of the market doesn't really care and isn't interested in finding out about them.

Just my opinion though.

am a NIN fan btw and pretty interested in what's in the offing for 2008

[heathen]

I have to feel that TE is closer to the reality than Heathen with his somewhat Utopian view of the current "state of the nation"..............."The Rock scene is back in a big way.............." ...................sorry Heath, but You must be living on another planet.

Well it's actually a bit better for rock music than it was 3 years ago, no bands were really touring or playing in venues around sydney, most people shaved thier heads and painted what was left green and went to the nearest shop with glow sticks, before munching a bag of EEE's on thier way to a rave.

I've mixed at gigs where the DJ got paid 5 times more than the band. Which really sux.