Nine Inch Nails out of Universal contract

[GA Russell]

I'm sure that a number of you rock fans know more about this than I do, but here is what I know.

A popular group, Nine Inch Nails, is led by a guy named Trent Reznor. Reznor has from what I gather been outspoken regarding his negative opinion of record companies.

Today he announced at www.nin.com that Universal has released the band from its contract. I don't know the details.

Speculation at Digg is that the band may follow Radiohead's lead and release music for downloading cheap or free.

What strikes me is that the majors have in recent years seemed to have change their business model to rely solely on huge hit albums. And now the bands of these most popular CDs are going it alone. So the majors' business model seems obsolete. This would be a problem independent of the declining sales due to pirate downloading and competition from video games.

I wonder if Norman Lear and Concord have stumbled upon a business model more likely to survive the changes - sign stars like Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell to single album deals (which I think is the ECM business model) and take it one step at a time.

http://www.theninhotline.net/news/

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I wonder if Norman Lear and Concord have stumbled upon a business model more likely to survive the changes - sign stars like Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell to single album deals (which I think is the ECM business model) and take it one step at a time.

That rings a bell with me - an obscure one, however.

The Senegalese record industry was completely killed by piracy; by the mid 1980s, every record company had gone bust and shut down. For about ten years, all albums were made as a result of a series of ad hoc, one-off, contracts between the basic participants - bands/managers, studios, tape duplicators, printers, independent producers, and distributors - the competition for business was very intense, costs were driven down very quickly and legitimate product was soon being issued at the same price as pirated albums (approx $1.50 an album). The pirates packed it in. Record companies started setting up again in the mid 1990s. Prices remained the same ($2 - the dollar has been falling )

MG