Earlier this month (2 Mar), Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails released a new, 36 track album through the internet. The record came in various forms – read about those in full here, but they ranged in price from the option of taking the first nine tracks free of charge up to a $300 ‘ultra-deluxe ltd edition’ package.
The latter contained Ghosts I – IV on four 180 gram vinyl, three books, a couple of audio CDs and remixable session files for all 36 tracks, all signed by Reznor. It sold out in a day, earning Reznor a tidy $750,000. Today it’s been revealed the NIN man has so far earned $1.6m from the venture, reports Billboard.
That haul, roughly equating to £787,327, has been raked in from just under 800,000 transactions, apparently, including free and paid downloads along with online orders for the physical product.
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Good work
Trent...I'm gonna do this.
If you were
Trent, what would you buy with that money?
I pick "sunshine and happiness".
Proof to those who said that the "Radiohead model"
was only for established bands with Money to loose. If you are good, there is moeny to be made....
not really proof
Only works if you have an established fanbase of lunatics prepared to shell out $300 for one of your releases..
But only $750k came from the idiots who
bought the "limited" shite, the rest paid for the real deal.
In anycase, it still proves you can make money, either a lot from it, or any amount, which is surely better than none?
.
you lose money if you don't cover your recording costs though, obviously
totally
I cant have been cheap, the $1.6m was only the revenue, NOT the profit made.
Im sick of hearing about bands 'doing a radiohead', bands have done similar stuff in the past, they weren't the first and won't be the last.
Indeed.
But I still think it is a viable way for a band to make their mark.
Does this mean NIN aren't established?
I suppose they have only been on the go for almost 20 years with a rabidly loyal fanbase...
yeeeah
okaaaay
er..
trent IS established and with money to lose.
Fuck a duck
this is good:
http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/html/cartoon032.htm
good old meathead
i've got to admit
i'm impressed by this.
it's not like the $300 version is even a rip off if you're a fan
i'm not, but whatever.
like the radiohead album though, i think it's only possible if you've already got a large and somewhat obsessive fan base.
Totally 100% bang on the nail
If you can't convince people to part with £3 for a cd/vinyl, you'll never make a penny with a similar model.
The reason Trant struck oil with this one is he listened to what his fans wanted and delivered. If you don't have a fan base you may as well be trying to hand cdrs out to people leaving a club.
Saul Williams is the prime example of this. Trent said himself how shocked he was that almost no one paid for the album. As much as that wasn't really talked about, neither has been Saul having to sell his music to Nike and a car company so he can keep rent paid.
In fact the chap from The Ataris ended up selling loads of his private stuff on ebay about a year ago so he could keep a roof over his kid's head and food in their stomach till the new record comes out. That was after a failed "Hey, buy our album digitally months before we release the cd" idea which instead turned out to be "Hey, someone pay for the album, then give it to all your friends and flood blogs, download services and p2p engines with enough copies so everyone you've not met on the planet can get it for free!"
^^^
Ghosts took about half a day to make it onto a blog, it's quite amazing that it's made that much money considering whoever wants it can get it for free. Think reznor was right to put out his hard-drive clutterers before he put out anything 'real' and see what his fanbase would do.
Think the ataris guy has the wrong idea that his music alone will keep a roof over his head to be honest. That's why so many bands have bad merch/clothing lines/labels/etc, you can't download a t-shirt... that's punk for you though, don't sell out, don't sell anything...
Most people didn't pay for Saul's album?
Wow. I mean, people copy albums, people rip them, people download them, we all have our excuses, our justifications, etc etc, but then someone comes along and offers their work up for free/donation, and some people didn't pay? How could you not even chuck the guy a couple of quid? I will never take a freely offered download for free, simply because I'm so impressed that it's been offered. I love the idea that the moneys going from my bank account, into the bank account of the artist, as if I'd bought a demo cd of them personally at a gig.
I'm no saint, but jeez....