the new discipline

In these days of digital downloads and industry turmoil it is so easy to feel disconnected emotionally from the hype and release of any body of recorded music. So imagine my surprise and delight when I was sent into a fanatic FURY upon noticing what had been tagged in two normally unexciting fields of a track I downloaded for free today.

The track: Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
The tags: Album - ?, Comments - Go to www.nin.com May 5

Up until recently, a blog primarily about independent music might not have been the most appropriate place to discuss bands like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails. Now the fine line between major and indie labels is quickly expanding into a hazy gray cloud. Trent Reznor’s recent success with the unusual distribution options available for the four “disc” instrumental albums Ghosts I-IV seems to have provided him with plenty of reasons to continue experimenting with the new freedom he has now that he is no longer tied to Interscope Records.

A quick disclaimer: I am a giant NIN dork. I own every single official Halo, selected import singles and bootlegs (anybody ever heard Purest Feeling or Maybe Just Once?) and 3 different versions of The Downward Spiral (the 5.1 surround mixes are MASSIVE). Many have scoffed at my decision to immediately purchase the super deluxe version of Ghosts I-IV, although few continue mockery after seeing how much the package is fetching on eBay (which doesn’t even ship until May 1st).

That being said, there are still few (if any) artists that continue to impress me as much as Trent does in their approach to the constantly changing landscape that is the present day recording industry. A quick rundown comprehensive summery of the recent highlights:

With Teeth: For me, this was probably one of Trent’s most disappointing albums for me. However, the disc was available in a Dualdisc format with a full 5.1 surround mix AND somehow he was able to convince Interscope to let him release the full digital multi-track sessions for a few of the standout singles. Formats from Garage Band to raw audio files were available, giving even the most technically inept NIN fan the chance to dabble in remixology and post the results to an official NIN myspace location. While not the first to hold remix “contests”, I can not remember any earlier case where a major label agreed to allow this to happen without any real specific agenda of control or monetization in place (some radio stations held contests with various prizes for the best mixes but Interscope never ended up trying to sell any fan mixes that I am aware of).

a shameless plug: My attempt at remixing the track Only can be found on myspace here.

Year Zero: Before the album was released last year, fans started noticing hidden messages and web addresses in shirts, concert flyers and eventually USB drives discovered in the bathroom stalls of NIN concerts. The hype created by this incredibly well done ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming) campaign was viewed by many as brilliant marketing ploy. Trent considers it to be something else entirely:

…we started talking about, how the hell can we do this in a way that — how can we tell this story? — we want to make the world’s most elaborate album cover, you know, using the media of today instead of making people buy a vinyl record, which they’re not going to do, or a CD or an MP3, which has no artwork…

The interview this quote is taken from is a fascinating and detailed look at Trent’s thoughts and feelings regarding this strange new digital music beast. If I recall (as the interview is pretty lengthy) he even discusses how the RIAA ended up sending cease and desist letters to fans who had discovered the drives and posted the contents online and the craziness that was the secret show the ARG eventually led to.

Saul Williams - Niggy Tardust: While not a NIN release, the production and release of this record was very much a Reznor endeavor. The fantastic production and contribution Trent provided would have been enough for me to have bought the album outright, but the adaptation and refinement of the Radiohead (popularized) strategy allowed those interested in the album 2 choices. Download for free in 192 kb MP3 OR pay $5 and choose from 192 kb MP3, 320 kb MP3 or lossless FLAC. He was initially disappointed with the proportion of free downloads vs paid, but he did publicly release the numbers and Saul has since then stated that current download sales have now at least doubled the numbers for his last album. Even with the recent Nike commercial featuring List of Demands garnering an unexpected amount of attention, that’s not too shabby for an experiment with no real marketing dollas!

Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D: The Year Zero remix record was released with a second DVD disc containing EVERY multi-track session for EVERY track on the album. It was also supposed to be launched simultaneously with a fan remix community/site where users could post, listen and rank official and fan created content. Unfortunately, Universal freaked a few days before the release as they were concerned about being able to control the fan created content while in the midst of various legal entanglements. Rather than bagging it due to lack of label support, the NIN camp chose to host the site (and the legal “risks”) themselves. I have been constantly impressed by the community and contests put together by Celldweller (another industrial/rock/metal/electronic act and in the spirit of full disclosure I also remixed the Celldweller track Symbiont years ago, and was a finalist in the remix contest that eventually led to the current community), but I am not aware of anybody other than Nine INch Nails who has a community/multitracks available for entire albums (and then some). Prove me wrong, I want to hear from you guys regarding any other unique album/remix experiences!

Ghosts I-IV: An four disc instrumental album? Suicide! But if you are free to create whatever you want and present it in any way you want - ranging from completely free to crazy $300 fan packages - why not give it a shot? Now not every band (well established or not) can rake in $750,000 in the first few days of any release, but it seems to prove that there are other avenues out there that can be worthwhile from a revenue standpoint. Sure, even the music itself often feels like an experiment, or at times somewhat unfinished (RAW those of us blinded by fandom might insist) but I found it kind of exciting and refreshing that; given a chance to take down the self and label imposed walls of perfection and critical snobbery, someone would do so unflinchingly. I also believe is somewhat historic in that it is the first high profile and commercial music recording released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Ghosts Film Festival: Worth a quick mention is the partnership between NIN and youtube to provide an official outlet for filmmakers and visual artists to contribute to the Ghosts project. Described as a film festival of sorts, it will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Discipline: After all of that, a single DRM free track seems rather insignificant. The track is somewhat more in line aesthetically with the better tracks off of With Teeth than Year Zero, but I would rather pay for the worst tracks off that album than much of what I hear on the radio these days. This also marks the first official full blown NIN track to be released sans label, and as such it is perhaps ironically/intentionally fitting that it seems as radio/single friendly (if not more so) than anything on Year Zero.

So needless to say, I am excited to see where this all goes for Nine Inch Nails and the industry in general. Regardless of what you may think of Trent’s musical vision, I truly hope that we continue to see these sorts of innovations and experiments from artists and companies of all kinds.  I have no idea what might crop up on May 5th, but it seems crazy to me that impossibly vauge details contained in a few bits of ID3 info could get me this excited.