When rockers cut ties from labels
By Greg Sandoval
Nov 2, 2007 12:32:00 PM

Trent Reznor of the band Nine Inch Nails walked into the Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters of Musicane last month and stunned the start-up's employees with his tech knowledge and fierce attention to detail. Typically, when artists sign on with Musicane, a company that helps musicians distribute their music online, they are satisfied with letting Musicane's programmers, administrators, and designers make the decisions, said CEO Sudhin Shahani.

(After all, William Adams, or "Will.i.am," of the Black Eyed Peas is the company's marketing chief.) But Reznor had his own ideas about bit rates, Web design, and pricing. He even toiled over the text messages customers would receive when their purchases were confirmed. And all this work was for someone else's album. Reznor had hired Musicane to provide fulfillment for The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust a record by rapper Saul Williams, which went on sale Thursday on Williams' site. Reznor was the album's producer.

"Trent is well-informed, articulate and is very knowledgeable about technology," Shahani said. "We had a great meeting, but he didn't hesitate to disagree or say what was on his mind. He was extremely detail-oriented. There's not a word on the site that he didn't read or, most likely, write himself." Reznor last month left music label Universal Music Group, and the administrative tasks he undertook for Williams could teach him some valuable lessons.

Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Oasis, Madonna and a growing number of other artists have fled the big record companies and are taking more control of their music distribution. While striking out on their own offers more freedom, the performers also lose the label's prodigious distribution and marketing muscle. In the future, these musicians may find themselves being forced to make decisions about technology, customer service, and marketing.

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These are great developments and benefit the consumer and the artists in my openonion...so far it certainly seems to be a "win win" situation

Hopefully more and more big recording artists will ditch the recording industry and put them in their place.

I don't for one second deny they have played a major role in developing new talent and nurturing artists, but their fetish with piracy at the expense of common sense and generally accepted practices like being able to use music one has purchased on all forms of media players one has, just goes too far to be considered fair. Something else that really sticks in the craw is the raw deal on royalties so many artists have been dished out. The recording industry have masterminded their own demise with their failure to get with it!

I think it was Trent that told the Aussies to download as much music as they could off the net. He was ticked off about the prices of CD's in Austraila so he told them how it was.

I agree that it is about time that they started taking back not only what is their's but giving back to their fans.

Ya, we don't need a stinking middle man who gave Mariah Carey $100M for seven albums and Madonna now has a new long term contract which will put her near 60 when all is said and done. They can go screw themselves with all their whining with an outdated business model. Power to the people!