Tech & Biz

Reznor: Radiohead Offering was Insincere, Industry is Inept

by Rob Walker | March 14, 2008 at 08:27 am

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Trent Reznor is blasting Radiohead and the music industry for their apparent failed online distribution attempts. While Radiohead hasn't released any numbers, they've stated they made more money on their online album than all of their previous albums combined.

Reznor, who released his NiN instrumental album "Ghosts" last week, says their effort was insincere and disengenuous.

While Reznor offered high quality mp3s for download, Radiohead only gave out 1 cd of mediocre-quality files, the equivalent of songs streamed off myspace. They also then pulled the files and sold a 2-cd album through traditional outlets.

Reznor, by contrast, is avoiding the labels and any 'typical' distribution channels, stating he would keep his files online for anyone to check out, although he also only offered 1 of 2 cds for free. Reznor says he made $1.6 million via the extended 'premium' packages of his albums and cds, dvds and vinyl in one week.

He also struck out against the music industry, saying most of the people in the music industry in charge of technology and internet don't even use the net.

Read our previous NowPublic coverage on Reznor's new cd and distribution here.

"I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said when speaking to Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Michael Atkin. "But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale."
Reznor is referring to Radiohead's release of "In Rainbows" as lossy 160kbps (max) MP3 downloads, which many would argue are sub-par when compared to DRM-free offerings from Amazon and iTunes Store (both of which offer 256kbps DRM-free music). Furthermore, Radiohead's album is also no longer offered as a digital download, as the band openly stated that they were still going to rely on traditional labels and distribution channels for the rest of In Rainbows' sales.