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Trent Reznor Challenges Music Norms
alset_tech writes "Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) has released the new single from NIN's upcoming album as a GarageBand file for fan remixes. Though by no means the first time a major-label artist has released a track to the public for remix, this is the first time such a project has been as open to the common user. The repercussions to 'traditional' IP views in music could be beneficial to all. Note that the license agreement does not allow commercial use of the included sounds. From the download text: 'What I'm giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session for 'the hand that feeds' in GarageBand format. This is the entire thing bounced over from the actual Pro Tools session we recorded it into. I imported and converted the tracks into AppleLoop format so the size would be reasonable and the tempo flexible.'"
nin_garageband.sit
Another reason for all you Winblows users to switch a different os. If Mr. Reznor himself uses a mac....
On Topic. It would be nice to see more artists pulling "stunts" like this. I call it a stunt, because although I think it's a great idea, you don't see this kind of thing happening often. If you give your audience a chance to become part of your music, you will become all that much closer (no pun intended) with them.
It works particularly well in the case of NIN, simply because their music handles remixes so well. I have trouble seeing anyone other then Ben Folds performing a different rendition of "Tiny Dancer". You never know though, do you. Perhaps there is some music genius out there just waiting for the right opportunity.
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand this sig, and those that beat up people who do.
Gadzooks man! Have you not heard of "The Fragile"? A two CD set, mixed perfectly from start to finish, that spent a lot of time on the music charts, many singles on the radio stations, really cool music videos, an extensive world tour, and a resulting 2 disc concert DVD which came in Dolby 5.1 and DTS format. The DVD is by far, one of the most amazing music-based DVD's I own -- very good production quality. Even people who don't like Nine Inch Nails appreciate the DVD when I show it to them :)
What is cool is that he is a major recording artist (whether you like his music or not) and that he has made it trivial (rather than just "possible") for the masses to remix his music.
It's not like it wasn't worth doing if someone had done it before.
In the little blurb he wrote up to go with the release, one of the things he talked about was how going to garageband allowed for much smaller file sizes. Maybe nobody wanted to host the full size dealie.
People like you, I just don't understand. Someone gives the world something, a complete gift, and you bitch that it's not enough. What is your problem? If he did put out the ProTools session, you'd probably complain about the EULA. If he made it less restrictive, you'd wonder where the hell the rest of his songs were.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I'm a HUGE NIN fan, but I don't use Macs. Nothing wrong with them, I just have tons of legacy hardware.
Dude, you want to do real-time, multi-track audio editing on over 5 year old machines? Good luck with that! Your problem lies with Moore, not with Macs. And if you do have newer x86 machines then, yes, you apparently do think something is wrong with Macs.
I think you just explained why Reznor *is* breaking ground with this experiment. The artists at ReasonStation may be fantastic, but in one fell swoop Reznor has just caused a big stir. This is specifically because he is a major-label artist, and until now big-name acts haven't done this.
Small players are usually the ones that stir things up initially, but until big names that everyone knows get involved, John Q. Public doesn't have any idea of the possibilities.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Well, yes, I guess I do sound like I'm bitching, but it's not about Trent Reznor or the fact that he released the tracks to the public. That, in and of itself, is a very cool move, and I agree, it's a complete gift.
This having been said, let me ask you a question. Do you think that if the tracks had been released in some, oh, I dunno, say, Windows-only format, that it would be receiving the same ebullient praise here today? I didn't think so. See my point now?
As for the EULA, it is fine and completely understandable. If I were Trent Reznor, the last thing I would want to do is be in some club somewhere and hear samples of my material in some crappy remix that was "produced" by DJ WhiteKidWannabeGangstaFromDaBurbs. Would you? Again, I didn't think so.
So, where the hell are the rest of his songs? Hehe.
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
Very few ordinary folk own a copy of Reason. Like you said, ReasonStation and other sites like it are for "semi-pro" musicians.
Garage Band 2 comes free with every Macintosh. Damn near every OS X user also owns a copy of Garage Band, even if they are not musicians, DJ's, or recording enthusiasts.
This means that Trent Reznor has just released the bare tracks of a major-label single from a multi-platinum artist to the general consumer! High school kids lucky enough to own a $999 iBook or a $499 mini can now make their own Nine Inch Nails remix, or sample the loops into creations of their own.
This is huge. If it catches on, it could fulfill the prediction Brian Eno once made about popular music eventually becoming user-modifiable constructs. If you can't see what a big deal this is, you are not looking with an open mind.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
You don't have to see the license. If you don't accept it, then it's simply a copyrighted work that you (basically) have no right to use. :)
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Were these tracks the same as major singles contemporaneously being played on major networks, such as MTV?
Were the tracks from just-released (or yet to be released) major commercial albums?
(Or were they just old stuff?)
I expect these were either formerly big name artists or obscure artists releasing either old or non-chart topping material.
So, that would mean Trent Reznor still is breaking ground with this.
And, if none of the above is true, he is still breaking ground just by sheer exposure of the act.
We were concerned at first about the license, especially the bit about "other distribution of any of these sounds, either as they exist upon downloading, or any modification thereof." This amounts to a cover-your-ass clause... the band and Interscope are encouraging people to remix or whatever with this file.
Doesn't sound like a cover your ass clause to me. Sounds like a "go ahead and play at home like you're already doing, but don't ever share anything you make with anyone else or you're guilty of copyright infringement. Same as always.
If that's not what it is, go ahead and explain why.
If there was a clause permitting non-commercial use and distribution, that would be something noteworthy. As far as I can see, this isn't noteworthy at all. Publishing this stuff in this format under this license looks more like sowing the seeds for some nice future lawsuits than anything else.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
who?
The interesting thing is that Trent has been a geeky guy for a while - he made "Pretty Hate Machine" using a Mac and a MIDI keyboard, IIRC.
He's also made the soundtrack for Quake because he liked Doom so much, and is close friends with John Carmack.
While not as geeky as some of the electronica musicians out there, he's still got geek cred.
Very short-term memory. Bands like Kraftwerk and some of the bands to follow New Wave in the 1980s did this much more significantly...
he did mention the last 15 years, so since 1990 or so, Kraftwerk hasn't done anything particulary influential. hell, Gary Numan has been more influential in that time.
Kraftwerk (and most 80's new wave) was only really responsible for the EBM branch of industrial music anyway. the rest took what they liked, and moved on to a harder sound.
MM is only well known because they were the first band to sign to TR's new label, when TR was still an active and visible performer. Whoever he had signed first was garaunteed to suceed.
yeah, because we're all hearing a lot from Godhead these days. for every Eminem or Marilyn Manson, there are first bands that blow real hard.
this brings up the next point: Marilyn Manson only gained his initial exposure due to Reznor. if what you said was true, then Manson would have stopped selling records after Antichrist Superstar (which was the last record Reznor had anything to do with). the fact that Marilyn Manson is still able to pump out a multi-platinum record pretty much negates your theory.
Which is ridiculous with the extremely large gaps between releases...
apparently, your idea of influence and importance is the ability to create and move product as fast as possible. lemme know how your collection of "influential" backstreet boys albums are doing.
He made 2.5 good albums, and a bunch of remixes of that small amount of material, and coasted on it for years and years and yaers.
2.5? this means you're not counting "broken" as an album (which is complete crap. it stands quite well on its own), and you're probably one that couldn't wrap your head around The Fragile. but that's allright, you're bringing up the "lack of material" red herring again. nevermind that there are seventeen releases from the band...
how many solid albums did Led Zepplin make?
how many albums have Tool released?
how many albums did Jimi Hendrix release?
the answer is: "not very many". productivity does not equal brilliance.
Well: a) as you admit, it's not TR's work...b) you admit that it's bad...and c) it's not even remotely original...Hell, Michael Jackson made a long movie for Moonwalker.
a) House on Haunted Hill is someone shamelessly stealing from Mark Romanek's visuals.
b) it's not bad because it's derivative. it's bad because of execution.
c) Trent Reznor didn't have anything to do with it, so comparing it to MJ's movie is sorta pointless.
How on earth could you think so? I can name dozens of other artists more influential on other artists and the music industry
really? so most Nu Metal, Emo, Hardcore, Stoner pop (Incubus/Red Hot Chili Peppers), industrial metal (Rammstein, etc), and even Mall Punk (Sum 41, Blink 182) would list someone else more influential than Trent Reznor? I highly doubt it. many are more innovative, but most aren't anywhere near as influential anymore.
So what has TR done that's so influential? Made 2.5 good albums, and then just wandered off to do next to nothing for years and years...how is that influential??
hrm. 17 releases, all of high quality. multiple movie scores (Lost Highway, 1 Hour Photo, Natural Born Killers). multiple game scores (Doom 3 - score is available online - and Quake). responsible for many other musicians making it big. responsible for the sound of many different genres.
yeah. I'd say that's fairly influential. in fact, that's almost David Bowie levels of influence. and he thinks Reznor is influential as well.
It's ironic that one major artist is releasing a single in remixable form when the music industry is shutting down ALL the MIDI file sites in the world.
.68 seconds. These files are usually played through the wavetable synth in the sound card or audio chip. They sound somewhat ridiculous and are often laughed at. They do, however, have one very interesting and special property.
... be... gone. Almost all of the music that your grandparents listened to is gone.
MIDI files are lists of instructions for playing a piece of music. For example, an instruction that says play G# on the trumpet for
With a notation program that recreates the sheet music from a MIDI file, they allow a music student to learn a song or piece or music. You have to learn how to read music to use it, but that is not very hard. MIDI files show you the chord patterns that beginner and intermediate players would not be able to derive from simply listening to a song over and over.
It is the sheet music book publishers that are shutting down all the MIDI files on the web. They are doing this because they believe that ten thousand downloads of a Classic Rock song's MIDI file is the loss of ten thousand sales of the printed sheet music for that song at $5 for maybe five sheets of paper. So, a major music instructional resource is being destroyed to preserve an imaginary market. (Would you buy sheet music of a classic rock song? Would you even know where to get sheet music in your city?)
This happens at the same time that every school in the country is ending or cutting back on music education in the classroom.
The whole music industry is insane and out of control. These guys are going to end up destroying their entire industry and destroying a significant percentage of the 20th century's music recordings in the process. First by stealing the public domain by legally extending the copyright period indefinitely. Then by enacting extraordinarily brutal jail penalities for downloading and sharing music recordings, even music that is supposed to be out of the copyright period that was in effect when the records were originally made. Then by putting unbreakable encryption on recordings and passing laws preventing the sale of any music playback device that can play recordings without this encryption. Then raising the price on recordings to pay for all this beyond its value to listeners and collectors. And finally, removing the recordings from the market because "they don't sell".
In this scenario, all the music recordings that are endlessly pumped into our heads in 2005 will be simply gone by 2055 (most of you reading this will still be alive then). All the music that you grew up will just
This is why downloading, sharing, and 'pirating' music is critically important to do. You simply can not trust the fools who run the music industry to protect and preserve a society's culture.