The recently indie Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is searching for a new model in the music industry.
Reznor had a publicly messy departure from major label Universal and has been working on the new album for Saul Williams.Reznor released Williams' 'The Invenitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust' and distributed the title as either a low quality free download or higher quality paid download.
He seems surprised by the low conversion rate from the freebie to the $5 higher quality edition.
In a posting at his website, Reznor says of the 154,499 times the title was downloaded, only 18.3% chose the $5 high quality version. "Is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening", he said.
Williams last album sold 33,897 units. 28,322 fans paid $5 each for the new album as a download.
"I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality - no strings attached - and offered a hassle free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price people would "do the right thing"" Reznor said.
Reznor concludes that considering how people who downloaded the record found out about it, it is indeed bad news for the record industry but not necessarily for the music industry. "I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence" he says. "If that assumption is correct - that most of the people that chose to download Saul's record came from his or my own fan-base - is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening".
However, the positive spin is "Saul's music is in more peoples' iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He'll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can".
