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Posted in industry | music on May 16, 2007
a letter from Trent Reznor on CD prices
I linked to a story about this earlier, but then realized the actual letter by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor deserved its own post....
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. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:Nice one.* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne's record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).
By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: "It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy."
So... I guess as a reward for being a "true fan" you get ripped off.* The dreaded EURO Maxi-single. Nothing but a consumer rip-off that I've been talked into my whole career. No more.
The point is, I am trying my best to make sure the music and items NIN puts in the marketplace have value, substance and are worth you considering purchasing. I am not allowing Capital G to be repackaged into several configurations that result in you getting ripped off.
We are planning a full-length remix collection of substance that will be announced soon.
Posted on May 16, 2007 12:52 PM
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Comments (16)
We have to fight the fans over there, otherwise we'll be fighting them right here in our own backyards.
Posted by Richard Bacchus | May 16, 2007 1:08 PM
True fans have been getting jerked for years. Mostly since the CD revolution though. CD were always cheaper to produce than vinyl and initial pricing in the early 80's is about what they sell for today. They are cheaper now when adjusted for inflation, but still too much. The record companies are getting what they deserve. They created a climate of greed, overpricing, mistrust, etc. It kills me how much some stores sell CDs for. Like Borders, Virgin, etc.
My solution is to buy it early, & sell it early, all online. New music has been costing me about 2-3 bucks per disc, at the most!
Posted by Dan | May 16, 2007 1:11 PM
Don't cut and run from the war on music fans!
Posted by e | May 16, 2007 1:12 PM
What's a CD?
Posted by Christopher | May 16, 2007 1:42 PM
Christopher: exactly
Posted by kde | May 16, 2007 1:59 PM
no disrespect, but is he just now noticing this? geez.
Posted by mel | May 16, 2007 2:24 PM
"no disrespect, but is he just now noticing this? geez."
at least he's said something about it instead of totally ignoring it and letting the status quo rule.
Posted by Anonymous | May 16, 2007 2:29 PM
trent reznor--he's my hero.
Posted by cranky | May 16, 2007 2:41 PM
Richard Bacchus,
Now that was funny. Kudos.
Posted by will | May 16, 2007 3:00 PM
Now I remember why I respected Reznor so much. Although, if he was really, truly concerned, why doesn't he drop a bunch of his albums from a heli on the city of Sidney? Money out of his pocket...
Posted by greystone | May 16, 2007 4:05 PM
yeah cause that seems like a plausible solution.
Posted by anon | May 16, 2007 4:17 PM
I think it's great that someone who can get (some) media attention is voicing consumer frustration.
And I can't wait until Trent finds out what he's been charging for concert tickets.
Posted by J | May 16, 2007 4:31 PM
Um, concert tickets and CD prices are two totally different beasts.
Posted by Brian | May 16, 2007 4:44 PM
i love t-rizzle.
Posted by Anonymous | May 16, 2007 5:39 PM
From people I know who have worked at his house, Trent Reznor is a really nice guy.
Cds should be priced at 5 or 6 dollars. We all know how cheap it is to burn a cd at our own house. We know the labels barely pay the artists.
At $18.99 for a CD I have to be damn sure I want that album before I buy it. At 5 dollars a disc I would impulse buy the shit out of CDs. I hear that one song I like, I take the chance that I might like more songs on the album. I would walk out of the store every week with several CDs instead of browsing and maybe walking out of with one cd or nothing. At 5 bucks a disc, it wouldn't even be worth it to Pirate a cd.
Posted by Kurt C. | May 16, 2007 7:27 PM
Oy 'J' concert tiks are generally thirty to fifty bucks [for nin] and others are like a hundred and up.
fuck.
s'all i gotta say...
[oh, and I LOVE SPARKLEPANTS!! GO CARDBOARD_TRENT!!]
Posted by FUCKERNOTTUCKER, please | May 20, 2007 9:53 AM