Comments on: Trent Reznor’s Tips For New & Unknown Artists

By: Gordon

Gordon — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:28:49 +0000

Either this or my alternative which is to earn zero money for music, don't try to get anybody to listen to it and spend a lifetime writing books, recording albums, making paintings and writing architectural theories and feel fulfilled, if only in one's own personal universe. A hopeless scenario, of course, but it does take the pressure off and frees one from distractions…

By: synthhead

synthhead — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:45:35 +0000

I don't know if Reznor is saying this is all entirely new – his point is that this is the new reality

If you want to get noticed as an unknown musician, you're competing against those 500,000 bands that are already giving away some or all their music. That a huge amount of noise to try and cut through.

Reznor's prescription is a sensible as any I've seen.

By: synthhead

synthhead — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:39:30 +0000

I've actually got a Victrola, so I'd actually buy an electronica 78 rpm.

Has this ever been done? It would be awesomely old-school!

By: BlueBrat

BlueBrat — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:38:28 +0000

Well, giving away your music for free isn't really that new; before teh internets, bands got tape copies of their songs and gave them out at shows they played at. Hell bands still dot his, but with home-burned CD's. If they have studio recordings of songs, it would be demo-cd's, demo-albums, and so on. So this isn't entirely new. Like the band? Buy our shirts!

The merchandising and alternate avenue of money is the key here. Online comic artists do the same thing; give away the product for free, cash in on supporting merchandise.

By: WeRAllDevo

WeRAllDevo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:10:25 +0000

I think this is great advice. Will it work? Who knows, but it's probably the best option right now.

I do wonder though, with 500,000 unkown bands all giving their music away for free, will there be a way to stand out enough to get a following? It still feels like a better business model for an established act like NIN or Radiohead to me, but time will tell.

By: MirlitronOne

MirlitronOne — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:46:19 +0000

Once again, Reznor hits the nail on its nine-inch head. Not much comfort for us old geezers who don't know our Twits from our Blogrolls, though. For now, The Mirlitrons will stick to our plan of distributing our music in two ways: on 78 rpm shellac discs for that 'old-school' ambience, and via xenotelepathy for high fidelity.