Trent Reznor & The Formula for Future Music Business Models

Trent Reznor & The Formula for Future Music Business Models

'Reserving your fans'

The key points made by Michael Masnick:  

• His own company is called 'Four Sixty-Four'.
• Company helps to connect new media & different social media.
• 'Techdirt' is the blog of Four Sixty-Four.
• Blog includes information about the music & recording industry. Includes specific information on what Trent Reznor has done. 
• Trent Reznor's secret 'CwF' - 'connect with fans' + 'RtB' - 'reason to buy' = the business model

CwF + RtB = $$$$

• Reznor put together an internet scavenger hunt (like Warner Bros. did with The Dark Knight in 2008) to help him connect with fans. ARG, Alternate reality gaming. Connected with the fans in a way beyond just the music. 
• Upset his own record label by getting USB keys and dropping them on the floor in places where he did gigs. This allowed his fans to find these, which contained his new music, which was another way of connecting with fans, who would then go on and share his music virally and in the real world. 
• RIAA tried to stop the music that he was leaking. This annoyed fans because they could no longer get his music for free, which gave them 'a reason to buy'. 
• Small color changing gimmick on CD, although irrelevant, gave people a reason to buy. 

• After that album he was no longer signed to a label, and went out into 'the vast wasteland that is the music industry'. 
• Ghost I - IV: Giving fans an option of how they're able to interact with his music. Reason to buy - adding lots of addition benefits. 
• First 9 songs of 36 were free to download of his website, however if people decided to buy the whole album then they had the option of sharing it for free with others. 
• You could buy the box set, including a DVD and a Blu-ray disk for $75.
• $300 'Ultra Deluxe Limited Addition Package' - only 2,500 of them and all personally signed by Trent Reznor. It took less than 30 hours for them all to sell out.
• For free music, got $1.6M in the first week. 
• Amazon top selling albums, No.1 'Ghost I-IV'

• Two months later released 'The Slip'. You could download the entire album for free. 
• Put together maps using google earth to show where everyone was downloading from. Media integration. 
• Gave the fans a whole spectacle if they came to see him live visually. Tickets were made available if you downloaded his album online in 2008. 
• Put out vinyl copies of the album in limited editions. RtB.

• Website; what's new, music you can listen to, forums, chat. 
• Any photos of the band that anyone has taken are aggregated onto the sight. CwF.
• Free manipulative wallpapers. 
• Encouraging people to download RAW files and remix them, share them etc. (A bit like YouTube Mash-ups). 
• Giving out free 450G's of free material for his fans to play with. 

A2 Media Studies Advanced Production - Holiday Work

Alternative Music

(Universal Music Group is one of the most 

successful and prestigious in the world.)

A lot of the music that can be found in the 'UK Top 40' today is only there because big labels have shoved the artists name and track right in our faces as the public. Yes, the music is liked, usually by the teenagers of society, but what we hear every day is controlled by the labels and are unoriginal pieces of work as the artists sign away all control over what is done with their original recorded song. 

When we think about the pop music genre, stereotypes of youth in revolt, drugs, disobedience to adults & sexuality spring to mind as the content of the lyrics. So it would seem a bit strange that the young artists who are putting their music out into the world, are having their content controlled by multi-billion dollar companies being run by middle-aged lawyers and CEO's. The reason behind it is that the companies want the maximized profit margin off every one of their 'big money talents'. 

Capitol Records have signed many huge pop artists over the past decade including big names such as Katy Perry:

However, despite the mainstream there has always been and will always be an alternative genre of any type of music. Alternative, in this case is anything that doesn't cooperate with the mainstream. Some of the main ways that the artists tend to differ from the mainstream is through representation, style, lyrical content, form, production, distribution, consumption & fans. 

For my music video that I will produce with my group I believe the most important aspects to focus on are:

Representation - Including Mis-En-Scene & Setting. If trying to create an alternative music video, it shouldn't be set in a huge studio (with flashing lights and confetti) which obviously represents the artist having a substantial amount of money. This would be unlikely unless they happened to be already well off or signed to a big label, deducting the 'alternative'. What the audience sees in the video will coin-side with what they hear in the lyrics and beat. 

'Topman' clothing produces a range 

of alternative style fashion which you 

would expect to find in alternative 

music videos because it isn't mainstream 

in a fashion sense, or expensive. 

Lyrical Content & Ideology - The lyrics that are heard in the song directly correlate to the ideologies of the music. These could be the stereotypes of drugs & sex, or they could be something even more alternative such as political. Basehead, was an alternative political rap group from the early 1990's formed in Washington D.C..They as a group integrated many different genres of music including rap, rock & pop. Much more of their discography and background can be found here: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/basehead-mn0000141500 

A problem that many alternative artists face is not being heard by the big labels, (if they want to be). The big institutions fear signing these new artists, because they think that a new and unheard style of music won't sell profitably in the public and therefore won't take the risk of not breaking even. Otherwise, the major problem for alternative artists is getting a big enough fan base to start following them and spreading a good word of mouth either virally or verbally. This can also be hard to get, as the majority of music heard is by teenagers who are less likely to conform to these new and unproven genres & styles as they would stereotypically stick to the mainstream to stay 'sociable'. 

However, for the people that are interested in these new and 'upcoming' artists they are able to find some of them on the internet via sites that the artists upload their new songs to. E.g. soundcloud.com 

Another site that I found today is called unsigned.com & one band that I came across in the pop genre is called 'myfuturelies' from Sydney. On this link you can even see from the way they're dressed in the album cover that they conform to an 'indie' & 'alternative' style. 

http://www.unsigned.com/myfuturelies

50 Cent - Has sold more than 71,600,000 albums worldwide since 2000. Although he is no longer an alternative artist in terms of fame or money or genre of music (although that never was). He started off very alternative in the sense of lyrics (in his early music he rapped 'dissing' his gang bosses after he quit dealing drugs to pursue his music career, his ex-fellow gangsters tried to shut him down in every way). He produced his own albums with his partner and close friends in his bedroom in New York City, burning his own CD's and selling them on the street. He worked with his crew on their own to make it big and finally have a concert in Pelham Hall, New York City after having gotten a little stardom.