After Radiohead announced last week it would sell variably-priced digital copies of its new album through the band’s own website, without the help of a record label, many predicted this would be the death knell for the music industry, since any artist with an established following could easily follow this model. Well, apparently another shoe has dropped: as expected, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has posted a message on his official website that he has left Universal and is now a “free agent, free of any recording contract with any label.” Reznor has been outspoken in criticizing his label and has even encouraged fans to download the music illegally, so the move comes as no real surprise.
Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor: two idiosyncratic, anti-establishment musicians whose always-tenuous relationships to the music industry have just now reached a logical conclusion, or the leaders of an inevitable and snowballing trend that will turn the entertainment industry upside down? All eyes on inrainbows.com this Wednesday…
