Trent Reznor Advises Young Bands 2009-07-10 by Dave de Sylvia EMERITUS | 40 Comments | Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor has posted a blog, listing a number of common sense points to help young musicians make a living in the modern music industry.
Reznor wrote: "I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media "got it right" regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here's a link to their store:
illcommunication.beastieboys.com
"Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual "yeah, if you're an established artist - what if you're just trying to get heard?" argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I'll reiterate what I said here.
"If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:
"Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) - your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.
"If you're forging your own path, read on.
"Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
"To clarify:
"Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this - give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people's email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special - make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters... whatever.
"Don't have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]
"Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]
"Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately. The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact - it sucks as the musician BUT THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So... have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).
"The Beastie Boys' site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in - available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging - they are established and you are not. Think this through.
"The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on - like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
"Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace - it's dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don't autoplay). Constantly update your site with content - pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any - Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.
"If you don't know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don't get it - find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig - good luck, you're going to be waiting a while."
http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183
|
|
Tagged: Nine Inch Nails
|
|
Isnt trent reznor talkin too much these days? shut up dude. u hate everything and u diss everyone.
| | |
^
I lol'd at this comment through gritted teeth
| | |
Industrial Rock For Dummies!
| | |
Actually helpful.
| | |
Trent is awesome. That charity thing he did for a fan was way cool
| | |
Isnt trent reznor talkin too much these days?
he's a very established/successful artist who is using his fame to spread some help/charity. Some might find that he's too involved into topics that doesn't concern him, but all it is is him trying to use his fame for more then selling albums and getting money, which is the attitude of most older musicians.
shut up dude. u hate everything and u diss everyone.
the only person he's been "dissing" is Chris Cornell for his new album, and trust me, that was warranted.
| | |
Trent gives great advice, nice job.
| | |
yo thanks man
| | |
That was great. Trent is awesome
| | |
I wish Trent was my friend
| | |
Great advice
| | |
trent reznor more like jesus christ
| | |
i agree, a lot of wise words in here.
| | |
I love bands that use this model. I truly hope this is the future of (good) music.
| | |
trent is my friend
| | |
I think Trent fancies himself some kind of indie messiah, and at this rate he's no too far off...
| | |
great advice from an awesome musician.
| | |
*bows to master*
| | |
Trent is ma biff
| | |
wow, that was actually really informative.
| | |
Trent is great; a real smart guy, an awesome musician, and apparently a really kind hearted and good willed dude.
Rock on, we'll miss NIN
| | |
Isnt trent reznor talkin too much these days? if people stop listening to you, then you're talking too much. At this point, everyone's listening to what Trent has to say. Besides, he's really just answering questions people ask him.
| | |
trent reznor more like jesus christ
This
| | |
If I ever meet Trent I will ask him to adopt me.
| | |
^^ this
| | |
Brilliant man.
| | |
I'm sure I speak for all of Sputnik when I say, thanks for the minute by minute update of what Trent Reznor thinks about everything.
| | |
I can't really think of any more clever ways to praise Trent Reznor that haven't been mentioned here but wow he's the man
| | |
twitter ftl
| | |
bookmarking this shit
Also, no matter how much you may dislike twitter, it's making a hell of an impact.
| | |
Trent is love.
| | |
love is trent
| | |
Trent is way cool and I love him so much
| | |
Trent is a pretty cool guy. Eh says "fist fuck", wins a Grammy and doesn't afraid of anything
| | |
Great advice, by giving away your music in free downloads you can actually utilize your fans to help promote you. I'm surprised he didn't mention the upload sites like Mediafire or Megaupload. You have your albums up to those, it's just one link for a full download without the waiting like with torrents. Although I do understand what he means by having them available on their sites. A band I just did a review for on here, Animate Objects, has their newest EP for free download on their site, all you need to do is supply a real e-mail address then a link is sent to you in an e-mail, then you can download all the songs, either in MP3 or WAV format. Here's a man who will always be able to stay relevant in the music industry because he understands that it's a changing industry, much like the Newspaper or Radio industry, he's utilizing the Internet to his advantage as well as helping new comers on doing the same thing. This really is a great article that I think ALL bands should have to read.
| | |
Trent is amazing. This is perfect. Makes me wish I was making an album.
If I ever plan on doing anything like that, I'll be referring to this.
| | |
I really like what he said about the websites. Sometimes I get the feeling that some bands have never even been on their own sites, because if they had been, they would be appalled.
| | |
When I get the money to pay for a couple of days in a studio, I'll consider doing this. I just don't like the idea of giving away something that you paid thousands to make for nothing, even though anyone can get it for free thanks to Limewire/Soulseek/etc.
| | |
Yeah, but as much as it hurts, you have to make the move yourself rather than foolishly grabbing onto the money and snarling as people sneak stuff out.
| | |
Trent Reznor has cemented his status as one of my all time fave people/artists after this.
| | |
| |
• Jesse Lacey Allegations
• Jayyvon Opens Up About Abuse
• The Fall of Troy bassist melts do..
• The Story So Far's vocalist dropk..
• Deftones stream new single
• R.I.P. Lemmy
• Killswitch Engage debut new single
• Scott Weiland dead at 48
• Nothing But Thieves accusations
• Lil Peep Dead At 21
• Disfiguring the Goddess single
• The The Return
• Eye of Mensis single, cover, LP
• Static Dress cries
• Ulcerate drop another single
• Svrm stream new EP
• One Step Closer blur memories
• Satelle drops Baddest B*tch
• All Of Oso Oso's Love
• New Falling in Reverse LP July 26
• Elysia - Masochist Remastered
• Missiles weaponize tomorrow
• Demersal stream new album
• New Vulvodynia LP and vocalist
• Pillar of Light tease debut
» see all news
|
