A report on Marketplace this morning actually managed to anger me. The show featured a short conversation with Bill Werde of Billboard Magazine about the recent release of Ghosts by Nine Inch Nails.
What Trent and NIN are doing is the future of music, and it’s definitely newsworthy. Unfortunately, the name of the report (”Trent Reznor pulls a Radiohead”) foreshadowed its many flaws:
- Nine Inch Nails was giving away music long before Radiohead’s In Rainbows was released for free. In fact, NIN released a couple noteworthy radio hits under a liberal license perfect for remixers. Werde’s comments sounded as if the band was only releasing the tracks due to the success of Radiohead’s attempt.
- Werde argues that only “bands that frankly major labels have already made big brands” profit from freely releasing music. I believe artists like Jonathan Coulton might disagree. (Notably, it may be true that bands with more tech-savvy fanbases may profit more from this tactic, but I haven’t made up my mind about that.)
- It’s “Nine Inch Nails”, not “Nine Inch Nail’s”.
It’s great that these sorts of movements are getting mainstream publicity. I just wish they’d get the facts straight.
An audio version of the conversation is also available on the site.
