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Some Random Dude is a blog by P.J. Onori that covers design & technology in the broadest sense possible.
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If you have been reading this blog for even a moderate length of time, you are most likely aware of the unusually high amount of Nine Inch Nails articles on this site (seen here and here to name a few). Considering the general theme of this blog, I could see how this could be seen as strange to many. Still, I tend to write a lot about how digital media (which design-technology intersects with) is changing not only mainstream media, but the society which consumes it – which in turn impacts how we do our work. For the past two years, Nine Inch Nails has really been on the frontlines of pushing media away from the consolidated, copyright-heavy, corporate-run model to a distributed, grassroots, artist-run model.
Last night, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV, an independently-produced album that is available for download for the price of $5. There are 36 songs in this album, so that $5 looks even more reasonable than ever. For those of you into the tangible, CDs can be purchased as well. Additionally, 9 songs are available completely for free – no questions asked. While this is distribution model is new, it is not new – we have seen it with In Rainbows and Niggy Tardust, each with their own little tweaks on it. However, make no mistake, Ghosts is unlike any other album distribution we have seen.
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We all know what video UGC has done to change the face of modern media. Video is beginning to show signs of a strong bottom-up structure forming. In turn, mainstream media has had to adapt by both slowly integrating UGC into their model and putting their content onto UGC networks. While video UGC has taken off, music has not followed suit due, almost assuredly, to the music industry’s absolute resistance to evolve. Until now, the stonewalling of progress by the RIAA and other music industry leaders has been relatively successful in terms of the big picture. There are no YouTube scale sites offering independent, community created music. In my opinion, there is plenty of talent out there, but these sorts of movements usually need a jumpstart in order to pull in the combination of a large community and ample traffic to become self-sustaining. For YouTube, the early inclusion of unwarranted copyrighted video (whether intentional or unintentional) was that jumpstart – now TV content is a much smaller piece of the puzzle as a large content creating community has been fostered. The recent launch of NIN Remix may just be the jumpstart for UGC music. UGC music will become mainstream. The only question is if NIN Remix will be what gets the snowball rolling.
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Trent is at it again. Just like what was done for With_Teeth, Nine Inch Nails released Year Zero for listening before the April 17th release date. Listen away.
As if the RIAA did not look bad enough as it is, when you have high profile musical artists that does something this progressive, the organization looks even worse. With a very forward-thinking marketing campaign, allowing the public to freely listen to the album before its release, not to mention absolutely amazing music, Trent Reznor is basically showing the rest of the music industry how things should be done. Year Zero has easily been the biggest music-related event on the internet this year – for good reason. I myself have already listened to the album and have pre-ordered the album and I suggest you do too.
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