Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor Discusses Going Independent

2012-01-28

Story by Charles Ken

Trent Reznor says the music industry is ‘in-between business models’

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor was one of the first blockbuster artists to break out of the major label mold and go indie. While there are obvious benefits to flying solo — such as complete artistic control and the ability to do things one’s own way — Reznor says some downsides exist to being alone, too.

“… Where I’m at right now is realizing that it’s a tough road, and I think that we are in-between business models,” Reznor told TuneCore. “It felt clear to me that labels didn’t know what they were doing back then [when NIN left a major label in the late-2000s]. But I’ll say, on the other hand: doing everything yourself?

“When we went independent, we went independent-independent. We didn’t go, ‘Let’s go with an indie label,’ which has the same business model… And you realize the shortcomings of that– that you’re only as loud as people that want to listen to you. It is helpful to have people supporting what you do, and getting the word out… I don’t know what the cool record shop is in Prague. And therefore my record isn’t in that store in Prague because I didn’t know about it. I care about Prague, but I don’t care enough to go to Prague to ask somebody what record shop, and then strike a deal with, you know what I mean.  It’s beyond the scope of what I want to personally do.”

He added that he’s puzzled by the current state of music, but not in any way disheartened: “… I don’t know. I’m not disenchanted by things. I think in a lot of ways it’s the wild west right now, and it’s wildly exciting, and it’s interesting when something’s been disrupted this greatly, the record business. There’s limitless potential, but it also requires a lot of effort… “

On the subject of Reznor’s industrial tracks, the singer/songwriter recently revealed that he’s planning to write new Nine Inch Nails tracks in 2012. Read the rest of Reznor’s chat via TuneCore.

 




Charles Ken
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