NIN and Fandom

[jackofallgeeks]

So earlier this week, Nine Inch Nails released a new album: on their
blog. Ghosts I - IV was done without a Label, and tenatively steps into the
realm of free in a number of ways. You can find all the details (and
ordering options) at http://ghosts.nin.com/ -- or you can listen to me
here.

There are some 36 tracks total, about two hours of music in four
"movements," for lack of a better word. Ghosts I, the first 9 tracks, are
available for free on the website. They still have you 'order' and give you
a one-time download link via email, though I imagine this is just a way for
them to track numbers. It's still a might bit inconvenient and when the
site was getting hammered by all the traffic it generated many people just
went and got the free tracks off any of several file-sharing networks: Trent
Reznor (the lead, for those who don't know) put them up there himself.
Digital download of all 36 tracks is just $5, payable direct to the artist
on their site. You can also order a 2 CD set (plus instant download) for
$10 or the "Delux" edition (downloads, 2 CDs, 1 data DVD, 1 Bluray
slideshow, artbook, and classy-style packaging) for $75. They HAD had a
super-ultra-mega delux edition (everything the delux has, plus 4 vinyl
records, signed by Trent, and limited to 2500 copies) for $300, but they
sold out of that in about 24 hours.

So, that's pretty cool. I listened to Ghosts I for free, and it was
alright: industrial-rock instrumentals, a bit trance-y and I think better
suited for mixing or sampling. But good enough to get me intrigued. I
ordered the 2 CD set (the first actual CDs I've bought since, like, 2000)
mostly because I wanna see the booklet they come with. For $10 (+S&H),
that's a pretty fair deal, I think. And (so long as you don't use PayPal),
that's pretty much direct to the artist.

More importantly, though, listening to Ghosts I reminded me that I'd missed
pretty much all of the Year Zero promotion, and I'd never heard that album.
So I went ahead and checked it out, liked it a lot, and downloaded the whole
album from AmazonMP3. And it's reminded me how much I really like
NIN. I don't like EVERYTHING they do, but I like a lot of it, and I
appreciate their style. And now I've bought another 2 albums by them (both
on AmazonMP3; it's instantaneous, and CDs aren't all that useful to me).
The end point being that if Ghosts I - IV had been released the way most CDs
have been, I never would have given it a chance. I never would have bought
the CD and *if* it got played on the radio, and *if* I liked the songs they
chose to play on the radio, I'd prolly just get that one track or three (and
it's instrumentals, so odds of it being on the radio are pretty slim). I
would have continued thinking, "Yeah, NIN; they had some cool stuff out when
I was in Highschool," and I wouldn't be buying things from them now.

It's unfortunate though that most of my money is probably going to Amazon or
NIN's old Label. As much as I like Amazon, I'd really rather be supporting
the artist directly. In the world of the Internet, who needs middle-men?

There's an interesting article Here that covers my current experience with
NIN and my thoughts on what ought to be in portant to artists (musicians,
authors, actors, scriptwriters, etc) in today's world: Fans. When you have
fans, you have influence. When your fans like and respect you, they want to
see you succeed. When your fans crave your next work, they'll do what they
can to help that work come to be. In that light, with the technology we
have today, selling content the way it's been done for the last few decades
is dumb. The best way to get fans is to expose yourself and get your art
out there. Once you have fans, they'll willing buy $300 collectors sets,
even if they already have the content elsewhere.

Comments

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

So, basically, it all boils down to "All artists could really take a lesson from (successful) webcomics."

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, an article talking about this idea put it thus: "one person in each town in Britain likes your dumb web comic; that's enough to live off of."