Yesterday Trent Reznor wrote an amazing post on the Nine Inch Nails blog stating that he no longer has a record contract and that NIN is now a free agent.
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.
This, along with Radiohead’s pay what you want release of their new album “In Rainbows”, are both signs of big changes to come in the record industry.
via Chris Messina on Twitter
Here Are A Few Related Posts You Might Enjoy:
- New Nine Inch Nails Album Distributed As Free Download
- “Discipline” by Nine Inch Nails
- Video of Trent Reznor in Exotic Birds, One of His Bands Before Nine Inch Nails
- Canon 5D Mark II HD Video of Nine Inch Nails In Live Concert
- New Radiohead Record, You Choose How Much To Pay
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I admire their gumption, but this is a viable option mostly for established bands. Radiohead has been around for 15 years, Nine Inch Nails for almost twenty; both have an established worldwide fanbase. Contrast them to Katy Stephan who has published tons of her work as free downloads.
Issa (The Artist Formerly Known as Jane Siberry) has been doing “pay what you want” for her music since 2005. She’s the real trailblazer.
There are other interesting arrangements. The White Stripes had a one-record deal. Imogen Heap is the studio recording an album, but she has complete control. It’s really her own label (Megaphonic) distributed by a major player.
The labels still have a function in bringing an artist to mainstream international recognition. Once they get that, it may be time for those artists to cut their ties.
I’m Looking for a job, mabye a dirty job with Mike Rowe, Who knows but, How about the NIN’s Industry, looking for any small town villians rejected from its own corpral punishment? And yes the left fragile is with me…