NIN Follows Radiohead Out the Record Label Door

CNET News Blog is reporting that “less than a month after publicly calling executives at his music label unprintable names, rocker Trent Reznor has signaled that his days of working for a record company are over.”

Reznor hasn’t specifically said whether or not they’ll do the same thing Radiohead did and let fans decide the pricing of their next album. But like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails will be handling sales and distribution of their new album Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D themselves.

“Two well-known bands taking to the Internet to sell their own albums is not yet a trend, but it certainly must be a cause for concern in the halls of the four major music companies,” the article said. “The question raised by the defections is whether well-established performers need big music conglomerates in the digital age.”

It’s certainly easier for a well-known band to release an album on the Internet, since everyone already knows who they are. Whether or not this can be a model that extends throughout the music industry remains to be seen.

First Radiohead…now Nine Inch Nails bids adieu to music label [CNET News Blog]

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