Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails posted some extremely disappointing results of his experiment giving away the album he produced for spoken word artist Saul Williams.
In case you're not aware, he made the album available for free at a low (not bad: 160) mp3 rate, and asked a measly five bucks for higher quality digital tracks. I myself decided the support the idea, and coughed up five bucks without even listening to it first. It wasn't my cup of tea at all, but I certainly didn't feel ripped off; it was my choice, and I was intrigued by the idea. What's completely sad and depressing, is that hard core NIN fans made up the bulk of people downloading the thing, and only about 18% paid for it. Come on, people! Five bucks! This is utterly disgusting.
To me, it just proves what I have long suspected: despite all of the rationalizations, people just want something for nothing. If they could download concert tickets for free, or a happy meal from McDonald's, they'd rationalize that as well. I just wish they would be more honest about it, and quit trying to justify it.
At this moment, I have no desire to make music anymore for these parasites. Fuck 'em, let them make mashups and push around loops in Garageband. It's a shame.
2 comments:
Wolf,
Zappa already said:
FREE IS WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR NOTHING
OR DO NOTHING
We used to call 'em WallRats.
Lightnin'
Like your blog and I'm a very big Mamborama fan.
You are overlooking something - only children will listen to a Trent Razr CD and they don't have any money, therefore of course they'll take some free tunes.
Now, if Columbia offered Grieg's greatest hits online and said pick your price, the NPR audience would pay for that. In other words, the audience for this model has to be mature.
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