Death by Digital Distribution

This week, we again woke up on Monday morning to the sound of a new Nine Inch Nails album, (yes, again: remember the 2-disc instrumental album Ghosts I-IV released a few months ago). Thus, without any kind of promotional plan, Trent Reznor uploaded his latest work, "The Slip", on http://www.nin.com/, this time as a free download for all NiN fans. How great is that?

In recent months, Reznor has really shaken things up for the record industry by embracing digital content distribution like no one else before. His business plan is simple:

1)Distribute for a small fee (or for free ) your music.
2)Make your fans happy.
3)Offer well-made physical products and limited edition packages at relatively low cost (10$ for the 2-disc album "Ghosts").
4)Go on tour and make profit over merchandising.

And for Reznor, it payed off, with 1.6 millions dollars going into his pockets after only one week of the release of "Ghosts". That is more than enough to pay for packaging, web hosting, recording, etc. and it obviously is a huge margin compared to the few percents artists make on record sales these days (actually said to be under 5%).

And to finish this big f*** you to the industry, Reznor chose to distribute both his new albums through peer-to-peer torrents, which have been as the devil by record companies.

In the end, you've just got to applaud his efforts, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Oh... and by the way, his new music is great. A more mature and melodic NiN, just like he has been hinting at with Year Zero. And I just love the 2 songs / 12 minutes instrumental break before the last song of the record.

Of course, the only thing I wonder is how someone could achieve this and be profitable without already having an existing fan base. That's a chat I really would like to have with Reznor, as this DIY (Do-It-Yourself) work ethic that he promotes is something that I found important and that I have tried to respect with Plum Shark as it enables you to put the music in front of everything else.

What is funny is that it seems the industry just kills itself by promoting all these artists that put music far behind their list of priorities, but I guess it has always been like that... just look at the old adage of Sex-Drugs-Rock'n Roll. To paraphrase Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta in a recent interview (for those who know him... who's better to comment on integrity and DYI that this guy?!?), notice how the Rock'n Roll part comes last! That is sad, but it just says it all...

And now, concerning real music, I have been hard at work, these past few nights, on digital editing of the songs for Plum Shark's second album, and let me tell you, it will be good. We really believe in these songs, and can't wait to get this album in your hands.

I hope we will be able to figure out something cool to do about digital distribution, and I already have a few ideas with which I would like to go forth... I'll keep you posted.