Niggy Tardust — breaking the chains
p2pnet news | Music:- Does the honour system work for Net music? That’s to say, if performers post their work online, leaving it up to downloaders to pay for it, will they?
Nine-Inch-Nail’s Trent Reznor is, to literally hundreds of thousands of music lovers around the world, The Man.
He was one of the first major mainstream musicians to break the corporate chains forged by Big Music and from the look of it, he’s having a lot of fun checking out ways to be his own person and stay relevant in the digital 21st century.
“Several years ago I persuaded my record company to let me begin posting my master recording files on nin.com, in order to see what kind of user-generated content would materialize from my music,” he said on the NIN blog, going on:
“I had no agenda … the main reason I did it was because I thought it was cool and something I would have liked to do if it was available to me. A lot of really fun stuff started to happen …communities developed, web sites were created, even traditional radio got in the game and began playing the fans’ mixes. I felt the experiment, despite not having a specific purpose, was a success. So much so that we’re now releasing a remix album that includes some of this fan-created material as well as the actual multitrack master files for every song from my latest record, Year Zero.”
Anxiety and uncertainty
That was in November last year, and now, also on the NIN blog, “It’s a strange time to be an artist in the recording business,” he writes. “It’s pretty easy to see what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what’s right. As I find myself free from the bloated bureaucracy of major labels, finally able to do whatever I want … well, what is that? What is the ‘right’ way to release records, treat your music and your audience with respect and attempt to make a living as well?
“I have a number of musician friends who are either in a similar situation or feel they soon will be, and it’s a real source of anxiety and uncertainty.”
So Reznor produced Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, making it available for free download and leaving it up to fans to decide what to pay.
Saul makes a great record, Reznor produces but, “We can’t find the right home at a major label,” he says.
“We decide to release it ourselves, digitally. Saul does not have limitless financial resources so we shop around for a company that can fulfill our needs. We choose Musicane because they are competent and are willing to adapt to what we want. The results are here: niggytardust.com.”
At $5. Or zip.
Saul’s previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies, says Reznor.
As of 1/2/08, 154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record, he says, and 28,322 paid $5, “meaning 18.3% chose to pay”.
Of those,3,220 selected 192kbps MP3, 19,764 selected 320kbps MP3, and 5,338 selected FLAC.
Reznor adds:
Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.
If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul’s last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K – five times as many – sought out this new record, that’s great – right?
I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct – that most of the people that chose to download Saul’s record came from his or my own fan-base – is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage – primarily from fans – seems disheartening.
Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody’s getting rich off this project.
So, are you a musician whose love is making music? Or are you someone who sees it as a way to become an obscenely rich superstar?
Very few musicians have people such as Trent as a friend and backer, someone who’s willing to literally put his money and skills where his mouth is.
But no matter what the medium, the cream always rises to the top and artists no longer have to rely on corporate goodwill to let people see and hear what they had to offer.
Nor is MySpace the be all and end all.
They can make their own web spaces and if their work is exciting enough, they’ll have no trouble making a living. They might not get rich, but they’ll have enough to put food on the table and practice their art.
“Saul’s music is in more peoples’ iPods [and other players] than ever before and people are interested in him,” adds Reznor.
“He’ll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.
“So – if you’re an artist looking to utilize this method of distribution, make of these figures what you will and hopefully this info is enlightening.”
Also see:
user-generated content – NIN’s Trent Reznor and Copyright Fun, November 21, 2007
NIN blog – Saul follow-up and facts, January 3, 2008
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January 5th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Well, this confirms my suspicions:
1. supposedly p2p advocates “respect” the artists, but when only 18 percent even bothered to pay ANYTHING, it’s obvious that their “respect” stops at actually bothering to reimburse the artists at all.
2. So much for the “high-minded” bullshit about how “it’s not about the artists — we just don’t like teh bloated, corporate bullshit!” That whole schtick was transparently thin from the start, as was the “CD’s cost ‘too much’” like. (Obviously they do — “too much” = “any price whatsoever.”
January 5th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I have two questions….
1. Did they make it where you pay up front, or after you had listened, and if it is up front, how many would pay something after listening to the album?
2. If you could factor in the bandwidth cost, why have an option of $0. If they made the experiment $5 or $.50 (or however much a nominal fee would cover bandwidth), would there be as many people downloading it for the nominal fee as there was who got it for free?
I also believe that they could write off the bandwidth cost in their taxes since the income from the downloads is direct and not filtered by some bloated corporation who would charge the artist for the bandwidth.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Hi Henry.
Having a nice day?
Cheers!
January 5th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
18% paid, hmmm. I question that number a bit
I have never heard Saul’s music before. I would prefer to use the $0 download to listen to the music, if I liked it I would then use the $5 option to buy it. I wonder how many others did this?
Again I am not a fan as I have never heard of him before, yet somehow I have found myself at the site a few times, debating whether to dl the $0 version to try. I have as of yet not dl it. My thinking is if I do and I do not like it, my non purchasing dl will just be warped into some statistic proof that no one will pay if its optional.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Right Henry. It must be because people are cheap. It couldn’t possibly be because people wanted to try before they bought. No way. That wouldn’t support your agenda of propping up the old dead business models.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
The albums pretty good. Space rock fused with rap and niggyness.
January 6th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
FYI: Payment was optional. You could DL the album at 192 kbps MP3 for free, or pay $5 for 192mp3, 320mp3, or FLAC. Payment was totally optional, and like Trent said in his post, there was absolutely no DRM, nor any advertising. The main people to hear about this were NIN fans, who may or may not be fans of Saul’s stuff, or even heard of him.
The other thing that TR mentioned that’s worth underlining is that he overspent on production bringing in A-list talent, etc (check nin.com for the full rundown). Saul may or may not be A-list talent. Frankly, that’s a matter of opinion. What Saul hasn’t been is an a-list seller. Assuming one of the labels would even have backed another record by him, I doubt he would have gotten whoever TR brought in to do the album.
Whatever else you can say about the big labels, they do have some cut-throat business instincts.
All this aside, I’d love to see TR release new figures in a month or so, plus any data about SW’s previous album sales. I’m just wondering how many others are like me and guilted themselves into giving Saul another shot. I’ve found that yeah, I like it, and I’ll listen to it again, enough to spend 5 for FLAC.