Passion is why Nine Inch Nails and vinyl are succeeding

January 7, 2009 By

There’s already a lot of commentary on the fact that Nine Inch Nails topped Amazon MP3 Album sales for 2008, despite the fact the first nine tracks of the  album had already been released by the band for free under a Creative Commons licence.

And the fact that vinyl album sales doubled in 2008, hitting a 17 year record of 1.88 million in 2008.

As Matt Mason points out, both examples show that ‘the physical souvenir of a digital idea still has value‘, and legitimate purchasing is becoming easier and more cost effective – for instance, Apple dropping DRM from iTunes and introducing variable pricing (although you’ll have to pay to remove DRM from tracks you already own). Om Malik nicely outlines the reasons why even the bonus from that DRM removal isn’t necessarily a good thing for the music industry – mainly because the three-tiered pricing structure being introduced could lead to more people expecting music for less.

And analysts are backing the idea that mobile music has to be free, for example.

Are there answers?

Going slightly further than Matt, I’d say buying an album already available for free, or investing in vinyl, shows something more than the benefits of better legitimate music stores or physical souvenirs.

I’d say it’s a direct result of passion.

The people most likely to download and spread NiN’s Ghosts I-IV are the passionate fans of the band. The people downloading from Amazon were aware of the album but either didn’t want to make do with the nine free tracks, didn’t want to download directly, or, possibly wanted to spread the word by purchasing via Amazon and propelling NiN up the charts.

Meanwhile to be a vinyl consumer you have to find a record player (hard to do offline outside of specialist hifi shops),  invest in needles and fluff removers, and actively seek out releases.

But what paying for NiN or vinyl does, is it elevates you from those people enjoying music as a diversion or convenient entertainment – it makes you someone who displays there passion for the band or format.

You don’t just like NiN enough to listen or download for free – You love them enough to pay $300 for the limited edition ultra-deluxe box set, and then buy the songs again via Amazon to promote them.

You don’t just have a convenient CD of new dance music or classic soul – you have the original vinyl with the ritual of selecting it from your shelf, sliding out the album carefully, putting it onto your record deck, and gently lowering the needle with the precision of a surgeon.

And anyone who witnesses either act is left within no doubt of your passion – and those who share it instantly mark you as one of their own. You’re not just a fan, you’re an Otaku.

It’s what sells a lot of products. For instance, the Halo Xbox game spawned two sequels, limited editions box sets, and a forthcoming strategy game.

  • Plus a table-top miniatures game.
  • The soundtrack CD for each game, plus a collection of the trilogy
  • 5 printed books
  • A graphic novel
  • A four-part comic book series
  • Calendars
  • Canvas Art
  • Posters
  • Vinyl Figures
  • T-Shirts
  • Controllers and headsets
  • Graphics to customise your console
  • Plus downloadable content to add to the original physical version, and customise your console dashboard

Then add in the derivatives:

  • Tournaments
  • Machima, such as Red vs Blue, which has it’s own DVDs, clothing and collectibles.
  • Halo costumes for Halloween or conventions.
  • And all sorts of other stickers and clothing from other retailers.

Now, how could you be a ‘real’ Halo fan if you just had a standard copy of the game? That won’t help you connect with other real fans, given 20 million copies of the series have been sold.

To show to other people you’re a ‘real’ Halo fan, you’ve got to have queued for the midnight release of the game, and have a sealed Limited Edition version. You’ve got to have the sountracks. At least one figurine of the Master Chief. A few of the books. Maybe a T-shirt.

After all, none of this is new!

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Why I don’t have much sympathy for traditional media…

September 20, 2008 By

The reason I’m increasingly lacking sympathy for the problems of traditional media is that the online world is still one of almost infinite possibilities. And yet the hand-wringing fear of not clinging onto the old way of doing things is what is hurting traditionalists – even when they’ve got access to funding, developers and research that should put them in a better position than a bedroom or garage start-up.

Take music an an example.

I’ve written before about Nine Inch Nails making themselves available via the internet and reaping the rewards. The free download of the previous album, Ghosts had already made $1.6 million.
songsterr

Then you have technology like Songsterr, a great online resource for guitarists. If you don’t read a traditional music score, as a guitarist, you rely on ‘tablature’ – numbers and lines to allow you to play music, generally available in books and magazines. Songsterr not only displays the tab as music plays, but even allows you to slow it down to half speed, which is incredibly useful for the tricky bits. (Hat tip to Jonathan MacDonald). You can subscribe to new song updates, and see what else is happening on the Songsterr blog.

And to round off, what about a musician like Ben Walker, whose ‘Twitter Song’ has been viewed 209,201 at the time of writing, and who ended up on BBC Radio 5 due to his newfound fame. Handily, he’s blogged a lot about why the song was created, and also what has happened since it was noticed. It hasn’t made him rich, but it’s led to offers of collaboration, offers to appear at public events, and offers to write about how musicians can use social media.

Now Nine Inch Nails may be established, but they’re a band not a record label. Songsterr doesn’t seem to have any big backing, and Ben Walker is an individual bloke.

Now why can’t big traditional media companies find the time and resources to experiment, and be able to soak up the inevitable failure rate to find success through big ideas? One successful new media boss quoted me a 1 in 10 success rate for ideas, but said that 1 success generally pays for the other 9. If you can’t do that as a big, established company now, things are only going to get worse.

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Coldplay demonstrate the problem with the music industry

June 23, 2008 By

It’s not a surprise that Coldplay are top of the UK singles chart (along with the album chart as well). Whatever you think of their music, they’ve got the fanbase and the following to make it as close to a sure thing as could be – despite the fact they got beaten by the Crazy Frog ringtone in 2005!

But what is very interesting is the fact that the official single to be released, Violet Hill, is only at number 11 on the charts. The song at number 1, Viva La Vida, was actually only made available as a download to fans who had pre-ordered the new album,  just three days before the singles chart was compiled.

So the track available as a bonus download for pre-ordered albums beats out a physical copy costing £1.99 by the same band.

For me, this is another sure sign that the singles chart should become purely about downloaded tracks, and that increasing numbers of bands and people are understanding that downloadable music is something which can be enjoyed as an incentive, or as promotional, or a taster – and not necessarily as the end product which supports the music industry.

For a more groundbreaking example, just take a look at what Nine Inch Nails did…

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Hitting the Nine Inch Nail with social marketing…

May 6, 2008 By

Following on from the time-limited free download of the last Nine Inch Nails album, frontman Trent Reznor has made the latest 9-track record, Slip, completely available under a Creative Commons licence.

Aside from the announcement getting Dugg over 8000 times at the time of writing, the download allows better than CD quality, with a PDF of the artwork, and the following message:

“the slip is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

we encourage you to
remix it
share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc.

©2008 NIN”

It’s the perfect use of loyal fans. NIN aren’t the kind of band who would generally get billboards and mainstream radio attention – but these way loyal fans will seek out the most relevant people to distribute the music and message to, with the added benefit that any remix will increase the chances of a NIN, or NIN-derived track becoming a hit – and meanwhile vinyl and CD junkies get a physical release in July, and NIN get more money from live performances and merchandise.

Just like in business, where small companies are able to get social media, and implement it far more easily across the board than Global Megacorp Inc, individual bands are way, way ahead of the music industry. As are intiatives like Slicethepie.com.

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