Kamp mot skivbolag och girighet?
Trent Reznor is an outspoken critic of the music industry, particularly corporate influence on his artistic freedom. As a result, Nine Inch Nails has clashed with several corporations, culminating in a decision to proceed as a free agent without any recording label contracts.
Since 1989, Nine Inch Nails have made eight major studio releases. The most recent releases, Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, both released in 2008, were released under Creative Commons licenses. Both were initially released digitally, with physical releases coming later. The digital release of The Slip was made available completely free of charge. NIN has been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards and won twice for the songs ”Wish” and ”Happiness in Slavery”, in 1992 and 1995 respectively.
In the early 1990s, Nine Inch Nails was involved in a much-publicized feud with TVT Records, the first record label to sign the band. Reznor objected to the label’s attempted interference with his intellectual property. Ultimately, they entered into a joint venture with Interscope Records in which Reznor forfeited a portion of his publishing rights to TVT Music in exchange for the freedom of having his own Nothing Records imprint. In 2005, Reznor sued his former friend and manager John Malm, co-founder of Nothing, for fraud, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, and other claims. Their relationship was formally severed in a New York courtroom, with damages awarded to Reznor in excess of three million US dollars.
Nine Inch Nails was scheduled to perform at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, but withdrew from the show due to a disagreement with the network over the use of an unaltered image of George W. Bush as a backdrop to the band’s performance of ”The Hand that Feeds”. Soon afterwards, Reznor wrote on the official NIN website: ”apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me.” MTV replied that it respected Reznor’s point of view, but was ”uncomfortable” with the performance being ”built around partisan political statements”. A performance by Foo Fighters replaced NIN’s time slot on the show.
During the Lights In The Sky tour in 2008, some performances of ”The Hand That Feeds” had the image of Bush on a video screen behind the band. At some gigs leading up to the election, the face of Bush slowly morphed during the song into the face of John McCain.
As part of the alternate reality game which accompanied the release of Year Zero, three tracks from the album were intentionally ”leaked” prior to their official release at a number of NIN concerts on USB flash drives.
The high-quality audio files quickly circulated the internet, and owners of websites hosting the files soon received cease and desist orders from the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA), despite the fact that the viral campaign, and the use of USB drives, was sanctioned by Nine Inch Nails’ record label. The source that broke the story was quoted as saying ”These fucking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on.”
The music of Nine Inch Nails has reportedly been used by the U.S. military as music torture to break down the resolve of detainees. Reznor objected to the use of his music in this way with the following message on the front page of the Nine Inch Nails website: ”It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture. If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities. Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.”
In May 2007, Reznor made a post on the official Nine Inch Nails website condemning Universal Music Group (parent company of Nine Inch Nails’s record label, Interscope Records) for their pricing and distribution plans for Year Zero. He criticized the company’s retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia as ”ABSURD”, concluding that ”as a reward for being a ‘true fan’ you get ripped off.” Reznor went on to say that as ”the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more.” Reznor’s post, specifically his criticism of the recording industry at large, elicited considerable media attention. In September 2007, Reznor continued his attack on UMG at a concert in Australia, urging fans there to ”steal” his music online instead of purchasing it legally. Reznor went on to encourage the crowd to ”steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin’.”
Reznor announced on October 8, 2007 that Nine Inch Nails had fulfilled its contractual commitments to Interscope Records and was now free to proceed as a ”totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label”. Reznor also speculated that he would release the next NIN album online in a similar fashion to The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, which he produced. Reznor later released The Slip in 2008 for free download.
Via another post on the official NIN website, Reznor again openly criticized Universal Music Group for preventing him from launching an official interactive fan remix website. Universal declined to host the site just days before its scheduled launch, citing the potential ”accusation”, in Reznor’s words, ”that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing [other media companies] for”. Reznor wrote in response that he was ”challenged at the last second to find a way of bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other’s feet”. Despite these obstacles, the remix website was launched in November 2007.
Jag kan tillägga att de videos jag postat är grymma men alla videos från den ultimata The Fragile plattan är borttagna från Youtube. Söker man på låtar som We´re in this together now och Starfuckers får man liveklipp att titta på istället. Jag lade först in två videos, ”Wish” och ”Head like a hole” från NINs officiella kanal på youtube men dagen efter när jag skulle posta denna 3:e del av NIN så var rättigheterna för att se videon i sverige borttagna. Jag låter ”Head like a hole” ligga kvar, demonstrativt…
