This is why the major labels are fucked.  You can’t ask for help IF YOU’RE SUING YOUR CUSTOMERS!

I’m writing about this as a public service.  Because, unless you’re a Nine Inch Nails fan, you’ll probably be completely unaware of it.  Not that Trent gives a shit, he’s concerned about his core.  But, my point is YOU CAN ONLY APPEAL TO YOUR CORE!  Because it’s too fucking difficult to reach everybody else.

Hold on to what you’ve got.  Maximize what you’ve got.  Pleasure your regular customers.  At least you know they’re interested.  Trying to convert someone new is oh so difficult.  That’s one of BMW’s successes.  The number of people who buy ANOTHER BMW!  Are you gonna buy another album by lame-o act if the first one only had one good track out of ten?  Are you going to buy the new single if the act never made it beyond the first single?  Are you going to go see an act live that only has one hit single?

Record labels still believe it’s the nineties.  They’re in cahoots with the major media outlets.  But radio’s tanking, newspapers are in free-fall and MTV doesn’t play any music.  These are your modern partners?  Ridiculous.  Your partner is your AUDIENCE!  It’s easy to reach your audience, if you’re good, if they like you.

Hell, YOU can’t even convert a new audience member.  Usually A FAN has to do this!  If I get one more loser e-mailing me a link to his MySpace/YouTube page, or worse, committing the crime against humanity known as e-mailing an unsolicited MP3, I’m gonna PUKE!  I don’t want to hear it from you!  I want to hear about it from the underground, not someone with an investment!

If I’m getting a press release, I know you’re spending too much money, you’re clueless.

If I’m not getting a personal e-mail, I know I’m just not that important to you.  Don’t tell me you’ve got to send out thousands!  I’m an INDIVIDUAL!

Old line marketing is dead.  And who knows what’s truly going on in the present?  NOBODY!  Which is why Trent Reznor is ASKING HIS FANS!

Read Trent’s words below.  He doesn’t sound like a record company bozo, speaking in platitudes that no one you know employs.  In Hollywood, everything’s FABULOUS!  It’s their BEST ALBUM EVER!  I’m IGNORING YOU!

Sounds like Trent’s a real person.  Like if you bumped into him at the mall, you could have a conversation.  The Net has burned down the wall between artists and fans.  You have to be accessible and human.  You can’t talk down to your fans, you must respect them.  They’ll do ANYTHING for you if you treat them right, if they think you’re really listening.

If it’s all about money, and the major labels believe this, telling us they want 360 deals and ringtone fees, then an artist like Trent has got the big boys beat.  Because his fans won’t buy only the single, but the album, the t-shirt, the concert ticket, the coffee table book, just about anything Trent can cook up!  And the profit margin? ASTRONOMICAL!  Not that Trent’s afraid of giving away his music for free.  Kind of like Google.  Search is free, click on ads if you’d like.  You feel GOOD when you click on Google ads.  You want to pay the search company BACK!

Doug Morris can’t come up with this questionnaire idea.  He’s never heard of questionpro.com.  All the fat cats.  They think their job is…  Exactly what?  Hanging with lawyers, dealing with television networks?  Their purview is rapidly declining.  And they just don’t know it.  They should be online, where their CUSTOMERS ARE!

It’s like a car showroom with no salesmen.  They’re all speaking B2B.  And you can’t test drive the cars.  And you can’t have a brochure.  The fat cats are so inured to the way it used to be, they can’t come up with new ideas.  Or, in the alternative, they’re so busy cutting budgets that they can’t hire and give reign to the young people who do know what’s going on.

What’s the name of Nine Inch Nails’ most famous track?

CLOSER!

That’s what we want.  To be ever closer to our heroes.  Because we don’t have many left.  People who are not sold out whores, who won’t make a deal with a beer company, who won’t take a political stand…  We need heroes.  And Trent Reznor is one to his fans.

They won’t answer the questionnaire with lies just to fuck him up.  They want to HELP HIM!

But they don’t want to help the usual suspects.  And this is a problem for them.

Honest, human, emotion…  These are absent from the mainstream music business, and that’s why it’s in decline.

_________________________________

Message from Trent:

Hello everyone.

I’d like to thank everyone for a very successful year so far in the world of Nine Inch Nails. I’m enjoying my couple of weeks off between legs of our Lights In The Sky tour and got to thinking… "wouldn’t it be fun to send out a survey to everyone that’s shown interest in NIN?" Well, that’s not exactly how it went, but regardless – here it is. As we’ve moved from the familiar world of record labels and BS into the unknown world of doing everything yourself, we’ve realized it would benefit us and our ability to interact with you if we knew more about what you want, what you like, what you look like naked, etc. I know it’s a pain in the ass but we’d truly appreciate it if you’d take a minute and help us out. As an incentive, everyone who completes the survey will be able to download a video of live performance from this most recent tour (and I know what’s going through your little minds right now: "I’ll just grab this off a torrent site and not have to fill out the survey!!!"
and guess what? You will be able to do just that and BEAT THE SYSTEM!!!! NIN=pwn3d!!!)

BUT

What if we were to select some of those that DO complete the survey and provide them with something really cool? I’m not saying we’ll ever get around to it, but if we did maybe something like signed stuff, flying someone to a show somewhere in the world, a magic amulet that makes you invisible, a date with Jeordie White (condoms supplied of course), you know – something cool. See, you’d miss that opportunity AND be a cheater.

Do the right thing – help us out. You’ll feel better.

Thank you and I’ve had too much caffeine this morning,

Trent

Visit here to take the survey:
NIN Survey