Add Trent Reznor to the List of Believers in Music’s New Model

Authored by Scott Goldberg on October 9, 2007 - 6:46am.

Bands are taking off the Label Handcuffs

Put yourself in the shoes of bands and artists with big names and large followings: The trend of raising your middle finger to the very people whose doors you once coveted access to is a snowball rolling downhill. The latest addition to the club, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, declared on the group’s site yesterday: “As of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.”

Such a decree, once unthinkable, has become the norm. If label executives weren’t crapping their pants at last month’s Radiohead announcement, they certainly are now. And it’s not because Nine Inch Nails has fled the coop (the band, after all, hasn’t been significant in the music scene for quite some time now); it’s because the important figures, the ones other artists and bands admire (like Nine Inch Nails), believe they can do just fine on their own, and other, lesser known groups are no doubt taking notice.

Whether or not they’re right remains unresolved. But reclaiming a sense of freedom and ownership over a career path once left so firmly in the grip of grease ball nickle-and-dimers with no interest in your beliefs, goals, and aspirations must feel damn good.

As Reznor said, “Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.” He might not have any plans at the moment; his only plan might have been yesterday’s announcement.

But in 2007-2008, anything is possible. As fans we love new ideas. It is the originality of the Radiohead initiative that captivated us. We welcome original ideas because they are the riskiest, and we inherently reward risk when it is done with our best interests in mind.

Musicians have realized in the last few months what home owners have known for a few years: the internet has taken the power away from the brokers. The labels, we now see, are merely brokers, no different than any other. They represented the bridge between the bands and the fans, and collected a handsome figure in exchange for their services. What was once an important part of the process is now unnecessary because the process has changed.

Bands and fans no longer require a bridge. So what role do labels play now? It’s a question without an answer, which can’t be a good sign.