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.