NIN/Trent
You might think Massive Attack is a band, but to me it’s when you get listed at DIGG and netizens from all over the globe start hitting your server, trying to access the vaunted information, and your server slows to a crawl and then crashes.
Turns out there’s a solution. You’ve got to tweak the software on your machine. But when this happened to me, I had no idea what was going on! My server was suddenly slowing down in the breakdown lane and then it finally expired, like an automobile with a seized engine. I was flummoxed.
But when I got the server restarted, I began to get e-mail from unknowns, telling me they were sorry. Hell, this is the Internet, full of crazies and scams, could I trust these people or was some sinister organization now after my hide? Turns out they were honest. The niceness was real. You see I’d written something about Nine Inch Nails, and the community picked it up, it got posted on DIGG and voila! The traffic crashed my server.
The last year has been the era of the stunt. We had Prince with the covermount in the U.K. Radiohead’s "In Rainbows". There was reams of press. But everybody who tried to repeat the activity…went essentially unnoticed. Did you know that Ray Davies released "Working Man’s Cafe" as a covermount? I hope he got paid, because he got very little traction. And if you’re doing a name your own price/tip jar campaign, be prepared to make little money and the publicity value will be close to zilch, since it’s all been done before. Next!
Trent Reznor tried the tip jar game with Saul Williams. You can read the posts in the blogosphere… Saul thought there was a net gain, based on the visibility, based on the number of people who downloaded the files. But Trent was positively stunned…THAT SO FEW PEOPLE PAID!
So Trent went back to the drawing board. And concocted a new Internet sales paradigm. Only this time, the press was minimal. Oh, there was a story in the "New York Times", but the rest of mainstream media ignored the story. They were chasing Britney and the ubiquitous twits around the globe. Furthermore, SoundScan told them Nine Inch Nails didn’t have the popularity of Rihanna, and they were going to get no airplay and Trent won’t do television, so fuck him and his theoretical band.
And casual fans might ask if Trent was testing a bit. This wasn’t usual NIN fare. This was an all instrumental album. This was an interim step. Did that reduce the publicity fanfare?
I don’t know, but I do know it all’s irrelevant. Trent/NIN’s "Ghosts" is a RAGING SUCCESS!
I know you fat cats only care about money. So I’ll talk money.
There were a zillion iterations. You could download nine tracks for free, for an e-mail address. You could get all 36 for $5, a price point the industry doesn’t even know exists. Eventually there will be a CD, on April 8th. And there’s vinyl. And a $75 deluxe edition. Hell, there are too many configurations to digest/remember. But at the top of the food chain, for $300, you can get the "Limited Edition Package".
The Limited Edition Package contains…
- Ghosts I-IV on 2 audio CDs.
- A data DVD with the multi-tracks so you can slice and dice at home.
- A Blu-Ray disc with hi-res audio.
- A book of photographs.
- A book of art prints.
- And the right to immediately download the MP3s.
- And, and this is the kicker, each package is numbered and personally signed by Trent Reznor.
AND, the Limited Edition Package is limited to 2,500 copies.
You know how the expensive seats sell out first? How people will pay extra for exclusivity? Whether it be speculators or hard core fans? Turns out the same thing happened with Trent’s Limited Edition Package. It sold out in DAYS!
Gross: $750,000. All to Trent. Oh, he’s got to cut Guerinot in. But…add up the costs of the Limited Edition Package above. Are they anywhere NEAR $750,000?
So while the mainstream industry is swinging for the fences, trying to get on Top Forty radio, which usually yields no significant road business, Trent has forgone the mainstream completely. He’s speaking directly to his fans. AND HE’S MAKING A FUCKING FORTUNE!
Do I expect this to be the last paradigm for Internet distribution?
No.
But I do know that if you have a hard core fan base, however niche, they’ll give you ALL THEIR MONEY!
Many people can’t even LISTEN to Nine Inch Nails. It gives them a headache. They believe it’s akin to camping on the factory floor. Who gives a shit about these people. Hell, it adds to NIN’s cachet. Trent’s not owned by MTV, not "Rolling Stone", not Volkswagen or "Grey’s Anatomy" or all the sponsors/advertisers the mainstream says you must be in bed with. Trent is owned by his FANS! And what they like about him is he’s only about the art, he lives in their generation, not the twentieth century. He’s willing to try new things, the way the Beatles did, the way all the classic acts did.
Furthermore, he’s making more money than essentially every act other than those still riding the fumes of old, last century contracts.
If it IS about the money, I’d say that Jimmy Iovine was hoodwinked here. Instead of overcharging for the last album in other territories, if he’d only set Trent free, Jimmy could have made a ton of money. From an act with a longer shelf life than the Pussycat Dolls.
Then again, Trent Reznor is Net-savvy. And Jimmy is not. Almost all of those in charge of the old edifice are not. You’ve got to know how to navigate, how to steal music online, you’ve got to know how the public thinks.
I know Trent does. Because when he e-mails me, it’s always about something on the cutting edge. He’s not referencing a tie-in with Verizon Wireless, he’s talking about the latest P2P site where his audience lives. And if you don’t live in the same world as your audience, you’re headed for marginalization, if not extinction.
