Gary Numan makes a surprise appearance on stage with Nine Inch Nails for a performance of his song Metal, live in London, UK, July 15th, 2009.

This performance continues with Gary Numan’s Cars.

Filmed by Rob Sheridan with the Canon 5D Mark II. Audio mix by Blumpy.

via ninofficial

Trent Reznor has emerged from his retirement and post marital bliss to do a little work for JJ Abrams’ Fringe, pro bono.

But he better enjoy the fun before his head explodes.

According to Entertainment Weekly:

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has teamed up with Fringe for a new promo spot.

The spot, which debuts Thursday during Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, features a reworking of the Nine Inch Nails song Zero-Sum by Reznor, who recites lines of dialogue from Fringe’s William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) over the music. So, how did the freaky drama series secure the services of Reznor? After Fox’s marketing department showed the Fringe producers a version of the promo that used “Zero-Sum,” series exec producer Jeff Pinkner simply asked a nearby Reznor acquaintance—that’d be co-creator J.J. Abrams—if the NIN musician might be interested in a collaboration. One email later, Reznor was on the case. “We offered him compensation, and he said, ‘No, no, I just want to have fun and be part of something cool,’” says Pinkner, adding: “How often do you get the chance to work with somebody like that?”

Reznor wound up revamping the song in his mobile studio while on tour, and he even came up with the idea of “embedding” one of the show’s glyphs in the music. (Hint: Examine the song’s sound waves on a computer.) Now for the big question: Might Reznor pop up in an episode of Fringe? “If he wants to come act on the show, that’s not tit for tat—that’s an open invitation, and we made that known to him,” says Pinkner. Any ideas on what he may play? “Well, his head would probably end up exploding,” deadpans Pinkner. “There’d be some uncomfortable biology in there one way or another.”

Whenever we mention Reznor and his new media music experiments, though, the most common comment is that “sure – that works for an established act, but what about unknown artists?”

Reznor addressed that question at the NIN site today with a post that offers his “thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist”:

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.

See the NIN site for the full article.

This video captures Michael Masnick’s Learning From What’s Working: Success Stories From The Music Commerce Frontier.

Masnick is the founder of TechDirt – a technology blog that has been a vocal critic of the music industry’s approach to technology, especially DRM and its opposition to P2P file sharing.

You can safely skip the first 2 1/2 minutes – but the rest is must-view material for musicians.

Masnick relies way too much on the example of Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and other musicians that were established by the traditional music industry.

More interesting are Masnick’s examples of the creative and bizarre ways musicians are connecting with fan.

Give it a view and leave a comment with your thoughts!

We reported earlier in the week that Apple had rejected the updated NIN app because of objectionable content.

It’s great to see that Apple used some common sense in this case.

They still need to implement a simple parental guidance system and stop censoring apps over content that would be acceptable in book, movie or music form.

Is it time for Apple to get out of the censorship business, and start slapping a Parental Guidance warning on some apps?

Trent Reznor

The objectionable content?

The Downward Spiral.

Hmmmmm. Wonder what line of what song that was……….

Let me know what you think of Apple’s decision in the comments!

Update: Trent Reznor has posted his thoughts on the issue:

I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and “clean” versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency – because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart.

My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any “indecent” material for sale – but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film “Scarface” completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?

You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says FUCK or CUNT? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about fucking hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone!

Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck’s sake get your app approval scenario together.

Update 2: Apple has now OK’d the updated Nine Inch Nails app.

NIN: Access is a free app for iPhone and iPod touch that gives you mobile access to nin.com’s media and community features, as well as a new “Nearby” feature that lets you exchange messages and photos with other fans in your area.

The iPhone app furthers Nine Inch Nails lead on other groups in making use of new media and social media to encourage fans interaction.

You can also preview the iPhone app with the video walkthrough below. There’s also a great overview of NIN Access at Wired.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image: maubrowncow

Trent Reznor And Kevin Rose – photo from the NIN Digg interview session.

Is that the sweetest background ever?

Walkthrough of the new Nine Inch Nails iPhone application with Trent Reznor, NIN art director Rob Sheridan, and special guest Kevin Rose of Digg.

The application is a state-of-the-art example of how musicians can use new media to interact with their fans.

NIN: Access is a free app for iPhone and iPod touch that gives you mobile access to nin.com’s media and community features, as well as a new “Nearby” feature that lets you exchange messages and photos with other fans in your area.

NIN: Access will be released in April 2009. More info: http://access.nin.com

Nine Inch Nails has released a new tour sampler – NIN/JA – on their site, and you an also get it for free via BitTorrent.

Trent Reznor, the frontman of Nine Inch Nails, is an advocate of working with Internet technologies, instead of against them.

NIN’s Art Director Rob Sheridan explains:

We use torrents ourselves, and we know that most NIN fans are tech-savvy and familiar with file-sharing, so we want to experiment with ways to use that to our advantage, instead of making the mistake of trying to fight or ignore it, as so many artists and labels do.

Details and previews at the Ninja2009 site.

TicketMaster has essentially been a monopoly for many years – certainly up until Live Nation’s exclusive deal ran out. They could have (and can right now) stop the secondary market dead in its tracks by doing the following: limit the amount of sales per customer, print names on the tickets and require ID / ticket matches at the venue.

We know this works because we do it for our pre-sales.

Why don’t THEY do it? It’s obvious – they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!

Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise.

Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?

Not even Reznor can escape the TicketMaster monopoly – but at least he’s working to keep them honest.

I’d like to see premium ticket sales move to an open auction. That would at least be fair and transparent.

What do you think of Reznor’s comments and the state of concert tickets in the US?

Trent Reznor has announced upcoming NIN/JA tour dates…..

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s what we can tell you so far:

Fri-May-08 West Palm Beach, FL [Cruzan Amphitheatre]
Sat-May-09 Tampa, FL [Ford Amphitheatre]
Sun-May-10 Atlanta, GA [Lakewood Amphitheatre]
Thu-May-14 Albuquerque, NM [Journal Pavilion]
Fri-May-15 Phoenix, AZ [Cricket Wireless Pavilion]
Sat-May-16 Chula Vista, CA [Cricket Wireless Amphitheater]
Mon-May-18 Las Vegas, NV [The Pearl]
Wed-May-20 Irvine, CA [Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Irvine Meadows]
Fri-May-22 Mountain View, CA [Shoreline Amphitheatre]
Tue-May-26 Englewood, CO [Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre]
Wed-May-27 Kansas City, MO [Starlight Theatre]
*** Fri-May-29 Chicago, IL [Charter One Pavilion] NINE INCH NAILS Only
Sat-May-30 Noblesville, IN [Verizon Wireless Music Center]
Sun-May-31 Clarkston, MI [DTE Energy Music Theatre]
Tue-Jun-02 Toronto, ON [Molson Amphitheatre]
Wed-Jun-03 Darien Lake, NY [Darien Lake Amphitheatre]
Fri-Jun-05 Camden, NJ [Tweeter Center At The Waterfront]
Sat-Jun-06 Holmdel, NJ [PNC Bank Arts Center]
Sun-Jun-07 Wantagh, NY [Nikon at Jones Beach Music Theater]
Tue-Jun-09 Columbia, MD [Merriweather Post Pavilion]
Wed-Jun-10 Burgettstown, PA [Post-Gazette Pavilion]
Fri-Jun-12 Charlotte, NC [Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre]

I’ve got a feeling we’ll be hitting Starlight for this Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction event, though it sounds like it will be much less electronic than the last tour.

Here are five electronic musicians that had great blogs in 2008:

Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails blog was probably the most influential electronic musician’s blog of 2009.

Reznor, more than any mainstream musician, has deftly used Internet media and social networking, and his blog has tied his multi-pronged approach together.

In 2009, Reznor used his blog to tease fans about new projects, highlight NIN media from Flickr and YouTube, release two albums of Creative Commons licensed music, share an insider’s view of one of the biggest concerts of the year and just to share his thoughts about the world.

In 2009, Reznor set an example of how musicians can use new media that will be hard for other artists to match and hard for Reznor, himself, to duplicate.
In 2008, Jean Michel Jarre used his blog aerojarre to offer personal insight into his life and also to talk about highlights of his 2008 tour.

Readers got to see where Jarre went in 2008 and meet the people that Jarre met. Readers got to share Jarre’s excitement about things like trying out a new instrument and the story of how a street musician in Budapest got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to jam with Jarre. 

When people were upset that YouTube was removing Jarre fan videos because of copyright infringement, Jarre made a video response and posted it on his blog, stating that he was sorry about the situation and that he personally approved of the idea of fans sharing their takes on his music. 

Jarre is the oldest electronic musician on this list, but the way he used his blog and new media in 2008 shows that age is no hindrance for artists wanting to make intelligent use of the Internet. 

Moby has been blogging a long time, Of the electronic musicians included in this list, he tends to use his blog in the most personal way.

In 2009, Moby did use his blog to promote his new album and a project that offers free music licenses for indie filmmakers. And he used it to engage his fans with a user-generated video contest. 

But the main point of Moby’s blog is to share his take on the world.

That means Moby’s blog often featured mini-essays on his liberal-leaning concerns, ranging from his work on the board of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function to net neutrality to the environment to the 2008 election. It also offered tiny views into his life, ranging from the movies he like to things that he saw on the street.

Moby’s postings are frequent, chatty, unfiltered and uncapitalized, which complements his artsy everyman personae. 

Whether or not you are a fan of Moby’s music, you can’t ignore the way he’s used blogging and Internet media to express himself and to promote his music. 

David Byrne is not the most obvious choice for this list.

While his solo work and work with Brian Eno in the 80’s was seminal electronic pop, his more recent albums have focused more on traditional song craftsmanship and less on experimentation.

Much of his work, though, is as experimental and electronic as ever. His Playing The Building was an electroacoustic installation that let visitors to play a building as a musical instrument, through the interface of a hacked organ. And his recent colloboration on Julio, a robotic vocalist, challenges our concepts of what is human.

“Like many animals, humans sing for pleasure, for sex, for attention, to express pain, to relieve angst and to join and participate in a social group,” writes Byrne. “All of these urges seem, if not uniquely human, at least not at all machine like. To see machines mimic these aspects of human life, is to watch some part of our imagined souls being appropriated.”

Byrne’s blog offers some of the most interesting and intelligent writing coming from any electronic musician. 

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Propa list without mentioning the journal of Charissa Saverio, aka DJ Rap.

Ever wish that you could get gear tips and insider industry info from an uber-hot superstar DJ/producer/model? 

Then you’ll want to check out Saverio’s Propa Journal. It’s a basic blog and Saverio doesn’t update it very frequently – but when she does, she offers her take on what it takes to succeed as a DJ. 

In her first post of the year, Saverio offered her take on DJ equipment:

Decks: Although I still own the one and only pair of turntables I’ve ever bought, SL-1200’s the Pioneer CDJ-1000 or DVJ-1000 is my weapon of choice. I simply LOVE Pioneer. [yes I love vinyl, no I haven't abandoned it. but you try carrying 20 20lb. crates to Ibiza only to find the crates nicked when you get there!] So CD’s are what I spin.

Mixer: Now, I’m really fussy about this shit. It HAS to be a Pioneer-800 for me. I don’t care what anyone else says, it’s the best. For me the effects, are stellar. The Pioneer-600 sounded a little too woody and muffled, if you like, often there were feedback problems.

Monitors: In my home studio I use the M-Audio BX5’s and the 10-inch sub that goes with it. I find they are incredibly accurate and really translate well to the dancefloor. I also use a pair of NS-10’s which help me with what I call the “car radio mix test.” In other words, if it sounds good in my car, it sounds good anywhere. For my mains, when I’m writing and producing I just got a hold of a pair of VXT-8’s which have a MASSIVE sound.

Headphones: I only ever use Sony-MDRV700DJ’s. They’re solid. And I haven’t gone deaf yet.

In a more recent post, Saverio offers her perspective getting played by DJ’s:

Make sure you print a label on your CD with all the relevant contact info. Pictures of yourself on the CD are a bad idea (I’m not kidding, I get those too) unless of course you look like Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Ryan Reynolds… ok you get the picture!

A note (preferably typed on a letterhead) with a BRIEF explanation of who you are (this is why a small bio is a good idea) and why you think this label is right for your music. That’s right, you have to think about where you feel your music fits… no good sending drum and bass to a house label like Subliminal or Impropa Talent, when you know it needs to go to Propa Talent! lol…

Don’t spend all your time gushing how great you think the label/DJ is.

Ok – that’s my take on five great electronic musician’s blogs of 2008. Let me know what you think in the comments. And, if you know of an electronic musician’s blog that was better than these in 2008, leave a link!

Apple has published a backstage look at how Nine Inch Nails runs their live show using MainStage. 

It’s a promo video, but it reveals some of the secrets of their awesome stage show and has some undeniably great gear porn.

We try to avoid politics at Synthtopia, because we’d rather be thinking about patching a synthesizer than thinking about patching up the country. 

We know you don’t come to Synthtopia to read about politics – you may even come to the site to escape it for a while. 

But – can George W. Bush be gone soon enough?

Bush’s legacy to his country will be 8 years of incompetent administration, the worst deficits in history and laying waste to traditional Republican values.

You might think that music and musicians could escape George W. Bush, but no. 

Massive Attack has publicly condemned the use of their music by the Bush administration as a tool for interrogation and torture.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has just made this statement, Regarding NIN music used at Guantanamo Bay for torture:

It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture.

If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities.

Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.

When news like this comes out, you realize that you can’t ignore it, compartmentalize it or think that this stuff won’t affect what you do. 

George W. Bush has bought the domain name for his Presidential library back from cybersquatters – so lets hope that he gets to work on patching up his legacy, so we can think about patching up ours.

Wired has an interesting look at NIN’s stage show, looking at how the band uses old and new technology to create spectacular images live:

With more than 40 tons of lighting and stage rigging, hundreds of LED lights, a daunting array of professional and custom-built machinery running both archaic and standard commercial VJ software, three different video systems and an array of sensors and cameras, the tour is nothing if not a lavish display of techno wizardry.

According to Reznor, it all started with a relatively simple idea.

“I wanted to see how I could use video as an instrument,” he says, “and try to really make the stage feel like it’s organic — like it’s part of the overall set.”

 

The core of the show is a sophisticated trio of transparent “stealth” screens, which are raised and lowered during the performance.

Using one high-resolution (1024 x 288) Barco D7 screen — basically, an opaque, computer-controlled screen comprised of a tiny LED system on modular panels — and two lower-resolution semitransparent screens up front, Reznor and other band members are able to trigger and control various video loops and effects directly from the stage. The musicians can also interact directly with those visuals onscreen during the show, thanks to a sophisticated array of sensors and cameras.

 

The full article is worth a read if your a NIN fan or if you’re interested in state of the art concert visuals. 

Image: mcpancakes

Mr. Reznor has no global solution for how to sustain a long-term career as a recording musician, much less start one, when listeners take free digital music for granted.

“It’s all out there,” he added. “I don’t agree that it should be free, but it is free, and you can either accept it or you can put your head in the sand.”

He knows what he doesn’t want to do: make his music a marketing accessory.

Now just making good music, or great music, isn’t enough,” Mr. Reznor said. “Now I have to sell T-shirts, or I have to choose which whorish association is the least stinky. I don’t really want to be on the side of a bus or in a BlackBerry ad hawking some product that sucks just so I can get my record out. I want to maintain some dignity and self-respect in the process, if that’s possible these days.”

More discussion at Mathewingram, Techmeme

I am proud to announce the final personnel lineup of nine inch nails for the foreseeable future. We’ve added, we’ve subtracted and we’ve wound up with unquestionably the strongest lineup I’ve EVER had. Joining me onstage will be Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Freese and Justin Meldal-Johnson.

We’ve been working on something really special for these shows and so far I couldn’t be happier with the results. We’ll be revealing some live performances shortly here on nin.com – in the meantime, we’ve posted some photos from rehearsals up on Flickr here.

Meanwhile, I assume some of you may not be entirely familiar with the acts I’ve chosen to join us on various legs of this tour, so we’ve compiled a sampler EP for you. CLICK HERE to download this for free. If you like what you hear, be sure to show up early to the show (and please remember to support them by purchasing their music, if so inclined).

Best,
TR

** we have fixed the download to accommodate those of you living in the 80s running Windows! XOXO

The EP contains five DRM-free, fully-tagged MP3 files from a place to bury strangers, does it offend you, yeah?, crystal castles, deerhunter, and nine inch nails. Your download will also include cover art and a pack of digital extras.

Trent Reznor left his major record label to self-release Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV. A week after its release, his Web site reported more than 750,000 purchases and downloads. In this interview, Reznor talks with host David Dye about his decision to set up a small studio to work on his project free of label restrictions.

Ghosts’ 36 tracks are instrumental. All the elements of Reznor’s production are present — out-of-tune pianos, razor-sharp ambience, jarring percussion — but his textures are more pronounced than ever. The discs make for great remixing material, which is exactly what Reznor has provided his fans. Each song is available as a high-quality multi-track download for those wishing to tinker; thus, the listener has an opportunity to become engaged in the music.

The 2 CD version of Ghosts I – IV is out now in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US.

Other release dates are as follows:

• Benelux: 4/11
• Scandinavia: 4/14
• Poland: 4/14
• Germany: 4/18
• Italy: 4/18

If you ordered from nin.com:

• The standard CD is shipping today.

The Deluxe Package:

• Pre orders made on or before 4/6 will ship 5/1
• Pre orders made 4/7 or later will ship on 5/15

(this due to overwhelming demand and additional order materials arriving later)

Limited Edition Package:

• Will ship 5/1