# Dear Mr. Reznor: Thanks for nothin' - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-05-07 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/05/dear-mr-reznor-thanks-for-nothin/ I gotta say I don't have a lot of love in my heart of hearts for NIN this particular minute. We (and by "we" I mean the group of people that work in the music industry that aren't insane or blinded by money) have been working hard these last few years to teach consumers, those fickle little creatures, that the cost of music isn't inherent to that little round piece of plastic it used to come on, but rather that it had an intrinsic value. In one fell swoop on Monday, Mr. Reznor pooped all that hard work right out his ass by offering the latest crop of NIN recordings for free, no strings attached. On the one hand I say more power to him; it's great that he has a revenue stream based upon mechanical royalties from previous recordings and touring that can provide him and his dependents with the means to pay the rent. God bless. On the other hand, it tells the consumer, who really isn't all that sharp when you get down to it, that we weren't that serious when we said "hey, those plastic disks aren't where the value is; rather, it rests in what's stamped in to them." The consumer isn't that swift on the uptake, I'll grant, but he has a good eye for bullshit when he sees it. Now, I'm perfectly aware that all this is just pissing in the wind. Music itself may not have a desire to be free, but consumers sure do want it to be free. So this is really more of a vent than a question in and of itself. But let me posit the following, and I'll leave it alone: I've heard the demo tape that Mr. Reznor sent to Wax Trax! before he got signed to TVT. Wax Trax! passed on it. TVT heard something (which oddly went against their normal habit of not hearing anything) and sent Mr. Reznor off to England to hang out with John Fryer, Adrian Sherwood, and Keith LeBlanc, and _then_ we get Pretty Hate Machine. So, logically assuming that Mr. Reznor would not have his current fame without the success of Pretty Hate Machine, and logically assuming that he could not have afforded the services of the producers that worked on his first album without the financial backing of TVT, one is only left with the assumption that the free music world to which Mr. Reznor aspires precludes the creation of his catalog which supports this aspiration. I can't come to any other conclusion, frankly. (And to those that would take issue with the preceding paragraph, I direct you to the Tackhead album "Tackhead Tape Time," wherein you will find the Adrian Sherwood/Keith LeBlanc track "Reality." Other than Gary Clail's robo-vocals, this is essentially "Down In It" instrumental, and pre-dates "Down In It" by three years. "Down In It" was, of course, the track that put NIN on the road to where they are now.) ## Comments (10) **stevo83** (2008-05-07): I liked Gniles Barkley's method where they released the album for free but turned it into one single file, with every song reversed. Easy as pie to get the album if you know a little and if you have an audio editor. Where as i imagine the average consumer would hear that it is one backwards file and think 'ah... i think ill pay £7 for the album on itunes'. Or maybe not seeing as the average consumer is probably a tight bastard as well. I think its a shame that less and less people are going to have proper, physical record collections in the future. I personally like to be able to peruse through all my CD's and Vinyl, looking at the artwork etc. as i go. **BurstCollective** (2008-05-07): We did a post about this subject during the whole "In Rainbows" thing. The question of the day is certainly "what is music worth?" Some have suggested that albums are headed to being reduced to advertisements for the tour, but I call bullshit on that. Giving music away devalues it, and gives pirating assholes justifications for being pirating assholes. The inherent message behind both Radiohead and Trent Reznor's latest offerings is "I don't need your money, I want to forge a new path, to show you all a new way. I don't need to rely on record labels to provide me with support, or money, or promotion, because I already got rich by letting a record label provide me with support, money, and promotion." There's a 'Bite The Hand That Feeds' joke here somewhere... **Dave McAnally** (2008-05-07): I'm still curious to see if there's some sort of monetization attached to this we haven't seen yet (he was already touring this summer without any announcement of a new album). The site says hard copies will be made available eventually. Perhaps 42entertainment is still involved and this is a small part of some huge plan where the consumer gets free music that have hidden clues to some greater good (cos god knows the music here isn't anything to write home about). For the record, 42E is really fucking cool regardless **chaircrusher** (2008-05-07): The free album sounds to my ears like every other NiN album i've passed on buying. Since when does a minor talent for pop songwriting combined with a taste for 'dark anguished'* lyrics make someone as apparently 'important' as Trent Reznor? The guy has to have a half million dollars in synth and studio gear laying around, why can't he come up with something more compelling than square wave distorted guitars all over everything? I disliked that sound when I first heard it on a Ministry record 15 years ago. And I swear on a couple of songs I hear an Alesis HR16 put through a Sovtek Big Muff. WELCOME TO 1993 TRENT, MIND THE GAP. *I guess I really can't take industrial lyrics very seriously. Luckily most Industrial/EBM guys don't either. Trent sounds like he's going for 15 year-olds everywhere to print out his lyrics and write 'SO TRUE' in the margins. **Chris Randall** (2008-05-07): If I denigrate his musical abilities, it leaves me open to same, since the vast majority of my catalog falls in the same genre, so I'd rather not go there. But that said, I about spit Cherry Coke out my nose with the "Mind The Gap" comment. The musicality isn't really the question, though. We're more concerned with method here, because one man's trash is another's treasure, and who am I to say? -CR **ehdyn** (2008-05-07): nin? -ah nevermind, no jokes from me - they've already done themselves in. Liked that aphex mix though. OT: Anybody here using this? http://www.pspaudioware.com/ It's what us po'folks like to call a "lymidur". What's the consensus? Wanting one of these too http://sonalksis.com/index.php?section_id=719 Feedbuck appreciated **ehdyn** (2008-05-07): Ah, was trying to link directly to the Xenon **giantm** (2008-05-07): I've been working on a "That's great for you and the consumers, but sets a bad precedent for musicians that need money to live" article for a couple days now based on this same event. It's great to see artists fighting back against "the establishment" but I'd much rather see them embrace a future method of operation that might be sustainable for all musicians, rather than just giving stuff away more or less out of spite. Paying people for music shouldn't be the issue, the issue should be who gets paid, and how much. Even if people were being subjected to 30 seconds of advertising, I'd be a little happier. Cows, which arguably actually have some level of free will, also want to be free, but nobody chokes at the fact we have to pay for beef. And, yes, Adrian Sherwood did a lot of great work with a number of people during the Pretty Hate Machine era. Similarly Flood did a lot of great work around the time of Broken (which is, in my opinion, more of the turning point because it attracted a more mainstream angry young male demographic thanks to the changes in the guitar work) **studio nebula** (2008-05-07): I'm a little nonplussed by the whole thing as well. Radiohead didn't give anything away until they were quite large, Prince was richer than God before he attached CDs to newspapers, etc. It definitely doesn't help people who are trying to establish and support themselves as musicians in the 21st century when the successful products of the 20th-century music business use their accumulated wealth to finance these giveaways. Personally I think it's immediately obvious that if people stop paying for music, there will soon no longer be any music worth paying for. Coincidentally, I just learned of this article in which Robert Rich directly acknowledges the point that the success of his current direct-to-fans distribution methodology came about only because of his exposure via the old-school (semi-)major-label methodology: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_reality_of.php --Adam **puffer** (2008-05-07): Weirdly enough, I was just listening to Tackhead (on vinyl!) a couple of weeks ago. And pretty much thinking, how is that NIN (and Ministry; who, sorry, are just as, if not more, pitiable than Reznor) get all the accolades when Sherwood and Co. had that shit nailed and almost no one remembers them? Is it really just that they had better logos? Granted I'm not an industrial guy per se; when I saw NIN on the first Lolla tour I thought they were pretty stupid. Ooo, look, they're knocking over their expensive equipment, how badass! Anyway, I thought the point of these free releases was that he would make it up in sales of high-end packages to the faithful. Didn't he make a killing on his $300 boxes on that last iteration of his album? I mean that makes sense to me: "I need so sell X number of units to the my base, and the rest is all gravy so I might as well just give it to the cheap bastards that would steal it anyway." I only recently became aware that there wasn't *any* physical product to this. But anyone holding up NIN and Radiohead as paradigms for the future of music is ignoring how those fuckin' bands got to where they are now. I mean, good for them for looking for new ways to combat the RIAA and engage your base. But the point is that both these bands had a base to engage. That is, a base large enough to amount to anything. I fear you're right, most consumers are going to take entirely the wrong lessons from this. Everyone is so entitled these days.