Nine Inch Nails Latest Album/Tour 2008

More than most performers working today, Trent Reznor has worn a number of different "masks," if you will, in his music career. Beginning with 1989's Pretty Hate Machine, he stormed into the public eye with ferocious musical ambitions and dark lyrics.

Nine Inch Nails' most current album, The Slip, is available for free download at NIN.com; it's almost a slap on the wrist to those artists who once protested Napster and Kazaa. According to the site, it is licensed under a creative commons, meaning you are free to share, remix, or redistribute the songs (so long as the sharing is not done for profit.) Wanting to release your inner DJ? Reznor welcomes you. See Creative Commons for more details.

In order to purchase tickets for NIN's Lights In The Sky Tour, you must register as a member of NIN.com. Those who have already signed up through Remix.nin.com (or other similar sites) are automatically eligible. Speaking of which, any of the remixes on the abovementioned site are also available for free. Among them are "Eraser (Polite)," remixed by Coil, and "Reptilian," remixed by Dave Ogilvie (of Skinny Puppy fame.)

On August 13 at 7:00 PM, Trent and co. will be performing at Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, GA. Tickets are already sold out, but there is still a slight chance you may be able to find some on eBay or other such sites. Most mainstream sites, such as Sold Out Event Tickets, say that this is an impossibility. Based on what we've seen from Nine Inch Nails in years past, it seems we can reasonably expect a forceful performance once again, and perhaps in the near future, a Blu-Ray Disc will be available in stores (or even a free online video feed.)

Reznor's decision to make The Slip available free of charge recalls his early days with TVT Records (his initial label), on which Pretty Hate Machine was released. Eventually, he entered into a joint-venture with Interscope Records, in which he still surrendered a portion of his proceeds to TVT. The deal was made on the condition that Reznor could release albums under his own Nothing record label, according to Huxley Martin's Nine Inch Nails: Self-Destruct.

The NIN mastermind has also found himself entangled with MTV in the past. At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, he had been scheduled to perform, but withdrew after her could not settle on the network's decision to display an image of George W. Bush during the set (specifically, the song "The Hand That Feeds.") According to E! Online, Reznor later wrote a statement on his official website, claiming "apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me."

Trent Reznor is not the only highly successful artist to make his music available for free (or at a low cost.) Radiohead, when releasing their In Rainbows album, announced that listeners could purchase it online for "any price you want to pay," according to Gizmodo.com.

This sort of arrangement works well for artists that have already made a name for themselves, but newcomers to the scene may be at a loss. After all, music isn't a career (in a sense) if you don't receive some sort of compensation. One artist who has taken the "Radiohead approach" is Lennon Murphy, the goth/metal singer known for such rockers as "Looking For Jesus." Dedicated fans still often pay for the album, in order to support her career.

Truly creative-minded folks such as Mr. Reznor often find themselves at odds with the public, due to political and artistic-freedom issues. Reznor currently operates under his own label, The Null Corporation, under which he more or less has complete control over the work he produces. It seems nearly unthinkable that someone in the confines of a corporate label would have the opportunity to dangle a free album over the heads of the masses.

In the same vein, Reznor made his album Ghosts available to the public under a CC license, announcing that anyone who felt inspired to create a music video for one of the tracks was free to do so. After receiving a number of fan-made videos, Reznor selected his favorites and displayed them online for his Nine Inch Nails Ghosts Film Festival.

As music and film increasingly move into the digital age, we may see more artists coming to decisions like that of Trent Reznor. The question is: what does this mean for the music industry? Will we one day find that it's no longer necessary to shell out dollars for our favorite artists? And in that sense, is music still a viable career?

Only time will tell.

Sources:

Gizmodo.com
E!Online.com