

Kevin Rose interviews Trent Reznor - beaudeal
http://revision3.com/diggdialogg/trentreznor/

======
beaudeal
The interview is a bit long (around 45 minutes) with some fluff (what are your
favorite gadgets?) but Reznor clearly recognizes in what direction the music
industry and online content are going, which I found very interesting. Here's
a quick summary of some of the more interesting bits:

\- Reznor explains that since music is essentially free due to downloads, he
doesn't feel it's necessary to require payment.

\- When they offered the option to pay, only 18% of people did so. But,
offering limited edition physical products worked out well.

\- His feeling is that it's more beneficial for a greater number people to
hear his music, even if it's for free, because the result is more ticket sales
/ merchandise purchases.

\- They're looking to build a platform for artists to distribute their music
which will give power to the artists. They're still playing with potential
business models that are fair for the artist and fan.

\- NIN is developing an iPhone app to connect fans by location, and will
hopefully create a "live blog" of concerts for those who can't physically be
there.

\- They're continuing to work on Year Zero with either a serial TV show or
graphic novel, which will integrate the album and ARG [
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(alternate_reality_ga...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_\(alternate_reality_game\))
] that they produced.

\- He has had some interest in live-streaming concerts, and is pushing for
venues to have an open-camera policy so that fans all over the world can enjoy
the experience, even if they can't physically be there.

I'm not a NIN fan personally, but it's nice to see a prominent figure in the
music industry with their head on straight.

~~~
GavinB
Reznor is a great guy, but I hope there's a future where people who make
awesome stuff can get paid based on that, not based on charity, limited
editions, and tie-ins. We need a new economic model for goods with real
production cost but no reproduction cost.

~~~
rms
>We need a new economic model for goods with real production cost but no
reproduction cost.

Not only do I think that is impossible but I'm not convinced that it is a good
idea. Has any economist ever done any quantitative analysis when the marginal
cost of (re)production is zero? I suspect that there are only obvious models
that answer the question by saying that goods with production costs of zero
should be priced at zero. In the short term there are all sorts of things you
can do to maximize profits when the marginal cost is zero, but in the long run
the price will fall to zero.

This wistful hope that recorded music will be worth anything is kind of like
my wistful hope that a viable economic system will come along that doesn't
have a nasty tendency to concentrate the wealth in the hands of those that
already have the capital.

Is that future you hope for really better than the one where something with a
marginal cost of zero is priced in the market as it should be? I strongly
suspect that the total amount of music recorded over time will continue to
increase even as the cost falls to zero. I'm not sure what is so great about
being able to sell digital music anyways. The limited editions seem infinitely
superior to me as a consumer and are a great way to add a little bit of
scarcity to a good that isn't scarce.

