Trent Reznor on ‘doing a Radiohead’

I hope bands don’t become lazy because of this release method.

I doubt it would make bands lazy; if anything we’d hear a lot more output from the bands.

They’ve improved upon the system by offering the album either at 192k for free, or for five dollars, the choice of either 192k, 320k, or FLAC. I know which one I just paid for.

In addition all downloads contain a pdf of artwork and lyrics and of course it’s all 100% DRM free.

Now we are getting to a proper model for digital distribution of music. Lower quality download is free while high quality download is at a price where the artist gets their royalty and the consumer gets a fair price.

Hopefully many bands will start using digital distribution.

I applaud Radiohead for the idea. I hope you enjoy our improvements to the system, and hopefully others improve it even more.

I am ashamed of bands like Pearl Jam who had this opportunity and decided to blow it off for the comfort of advance checks from their label, a band who consistently sells out large venues and rakes in cash.

Any future nin releases will come in the digital manner, with physical alternatives.

I bet that is actually trent. pearl jam own

major props to both of them, this is awesome.

For those of you who have yet to listen to Saul Williams, I highly reccomend you check out his music (even more so know that Trent is involved). As Trent has said before, he is breathing life back into a dead genre.

The fact that two of my favorite artists are starting to do this now is even cooler. The whole bitrate of mp3s never bothered me before this whole In Rainbows thing.

Here’s my question: What’s the balance between your music sounding good, and saving space on your iPhone? I’m really not sure.

I know I just paid the 5 dollars, and opted for the 320kbps MP3 files. It’s nice to be able to have the songs in high quality, since there’s no physical release at the moment. I was a bit disappointed in the bit rate of In Rainbows, but I suppose I can’t complain…I’ll be wetting myself when the discbox finally comes in the mail!

radiohead own

“one wonders if trent and saul would have had the courage, though, to release the album this way, had it not been for the release of ‘in rainbows’ going so well.”

one could simply look to previous interviews with Trent Reznor where he had planned on doing this with his own releases as soon as he got away from his label to find that yes, he would have had the courage. I don’t know about Saul, but Trent had planned on putting music out this way before Radiohead did this (and as said, other artists have done this, just no one as big) … and for the foreseeable future it seems that he intends on avoiding record labels altogether. Obviously, radiohead had an influence here, but I think it was more in terms of implementing a “free” version along with a 5 dollar version. As soon as I get the chance, I plan to pay for this, if only to support this model for the future.

there’s a couple of interesting interviews floating around with saul and trent where they discuss saul’s record and radiohead.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/trent_reznor_and_saul_williams.html

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9807934-7.html

trent paid $5000 for in rainbows?! christ.

May people are saying that radiohead are not the first to do this, and this is true. However there are several factors that made what radiohead did unique. First, it is a big album, 4 years in the making, not just a collection of songs that a band is fiddling with. Or a band that releases 5 CD’s a year. Also while other people have given away free music, radiohead had a system, they gave people the choice to pay, and decide how much. Now \
other people have been more generous,
but noone was as smart. That is why it is great.