In a recent post on Trent Reznor’s blog (lead singer of Nine Inch Nails) he has stressed his opinion on record labels including his own. Read more in his post below:
As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:
* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne’s record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).
By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: “It’s because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out – you know, true fans. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.”
So… I guess as a reward for being a “true fan” you get ripped off.* The dreaded EURO Maxi-single. Nothing but a consumer rip-off that I’ve been talked into my whole career. No more.
The point is, I am trying my best to make sure the music and items NIN puts in the marketplace have value, substance and are worth you considering purchasing. I am not allowing Capital G to be repackaged into several configurations that result in you getting ripped off.
We are planning a full-length remix collection of substance that will be announced soon.
After reading Trent’s statements about the current state of the Record Industry, I could not help but think of what a coherent, knowledgeable and well-thought assertion he made. He absolutely nailed it with the points discussed and if other forward thinking individuals like Bowie, David Byrne, Peter Gabriel and Courtney Love can continue to stress this, then perhaps the Big Five/Four (with EMI getting assimilated into the collective)can pull their collective heads out of their asses and make changes. Doesn’t have to be big, sweeping modifications either; but if they continue to shoot themselves in the foot, why should anyone in their right mind let themselves be ripped off by a bunch of greedy, obtuse pigopolists?