NiN released of contractual duties

[Leviathan]

Fucking awesome and about time. Universal has released Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is officially a free agent!

"Hello everyone. i've waited a long time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now nine inch nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. i have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as i see fit and appropriate.
look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
exciting times, indeed."

nin.com [the official nine inch nails website]

[ebbomega]

Wonder if his promotional stunt of making all the tracks available to the general public brought this about.

Reznor is probably one the better-integrity musicians out there. I'm still very pleased with his work and he seems to maintain his convictions.

[dabbler]

ouch. there wasn't any real issues with universal tho was there?

[decypher]

Just like Radiohead's decision to sell direct to the fans. Interesting change of structure for sure.

[swytch]

It is the way the industry looks to be turning. More profit for the groups selling directly to the fans.

[dabbler]

and screw the middle men labels who have ruined the business for so many

[cubed]

This could mean some really interesting things for Reznor and also a whack of money.

[dabbler]

well it most certainly means no "year zero II" by the end of this year

[dj_soo]

Originally Posted by swytch

It is the way the industry looks to be turning. More profit for the groups selling directly to the fans.

This model may work for the established acts but it's the major label exposure (and money for touring, marketing, etc.) that got these acts there in the first place I think - even if it's the quality that gave them the longevity.

To acts just trying to get off the ground this kind of model makes it more difficult to get noticed in a sea of indie acts, i think and there needs to be a better way than todays sea of myspace spam...

At the very least tho, hopefully this will wrench away the monopoly the labels have and will wrest any sort of attempt to circumvent artist creative control the label seem to have now.