Why I Love Trent Reznor...

[maleghasty]

I have just listened to the whole of "The Slip" by Nine Inch Nails, sitting out on my 'front porch' under a warm night sky, sipping a wee dram of Highland Park and marvelling how this man, this artist in the truest sense of the word, can move me and pry the lid off my soul with such candour and genius...

For those of you who don't know, "The Slip" is available for any and all comers to download, legally, completely Free of Charge! (Thanks are due from this blogger to reznorsedge for the heads up).

There is no doubt that he / the band will make a tonne of money from the upcoming US and presumably European and World tours to follow, and from the limited vinyl edition and special collectors edition of the album that will no doubt follow this 'gift' into fandom, but that's not the point - no finally free of Interscope and his record 'deal' here is an artist, with something to say and something to share that knows that giving his music to his fans as a gift is not only really cool, but is the way to truly embrace the changes that are coming in the music industry. We, the fans, are always going to go to the gigs - listening to the music on an iPod or on the stereo is pretty good, but there is nothing that can replace being there as it shoots from the instruments and out of the PA / Soundsystem and through your body in a glorious explosion of sound, emotion and power, so make the money from that, from the meeting of performer and artist and use the 'record' as the extended advert for the Live experience.

If you want to find out for yourself how good "The Slip" is - and it really is GOOD, then go here:

http://www.nin.com/

in the next few days and get a copy of it for yourself, for free...

G'wan...

Comments

[maleghast.livejournal.com]

You're right, he's not the first, but he is the first with his heft to release an album completely for free - Radiohead asked you to pay what you thought it was worth, so you could get it for free for a very short window until the average price already paid made the 'worth' or value above free and then you couldn't get it without paying for it. FWIW I bought "In Rainbows" on CD later in the year...

I know what you mean about record shops, and to an extent I agree with you, as record shops (particularly independent ones) are places that I love. Still as one of my friends recently gave up running one (in Manchester, a place steeped in the culture of record buying) because it was not a viable living, I think that ship may have sailed... There are always going to be people (myself included) that want the material CD / DVD and the packaging and the liner notes and the lyric sheet, and there is always going to be a market in that, at least for certain artists. How is it Nick Hornby describes records... "a fetish property not unlike porn"? Records aren't going away, I just think that more and more we will be buying them online and from the one or two famous and successful indie stores around the country - it's sad, but those of us who find it sad are in the minority and it may be better to accept that and find a way to be at peace with it - I'm just saying...

I am pretty sure that "The Slip" will end up being released on a physical format - Trent knows that we are 'out here' the collectors and the fans of the physical item. Still in the meantime, how cool is it that he / they have decided to give us their lastest album, like a gift to fandom - come on, that is pretty cool... ;-)