Nine Inch Nails released a new record today. It is free (as in beer and speech) and is licensed under a Creative Commons license, according to the liner notes.
Trent is answering all those questions we’ve had for years with his actions. What if artists released their work directly and retained their rights? What if their releases were free and remixable? Would it matter? We will find out shortly, thank you Trent.
I still think the more important question is: “What if an artist that hasn’t already built a career on the label system released their work directly, gave it away for free, retained their rights, etc. Would it matter?”
The answer, sadly, to that one is “no, it doesn’t matter.” Myriad small unheard-of bands are out there posting their albums for free every day, but there’s still no good way for them to get heard.
For all the chatter about how new technology/Music 2.0/viral marketing etc. has the power to “break” new artists, there are precious few examples of this actually occurring.
This is true, there are precious few examples. Kind of sad — yet I’m optimistic, because I cannot believe that art relies on mainstream media.
I am working on this problem. If nothing else, I will give you a valiant attempt in the coming months as I begin releasing great music from (mostly) unknown artists.
“as I begin releasing great music from (mostly) unknown artists.”
the idea of “great” is still in the eye of the beholder. as an artist who is willing to give away their music for free, and always will, i still feel only a tiny shred of hope to ever become “known.” this statement is still loaded with label sentiment. it’s still, and always has been, up to the public to search out what they need/want in music and sadly, the mainstream will never dig that far to find truly grat music. NIN is a mainstream band. their fanbase won’t need to look hard to find these albums, but most of my friends who work in an independent fashion will have to work hard no matter what to get their/our songs out there. you can creative commons all you want, but it might not make or break the music system. the best thing we can hope for is the overcoming of myspace as the prime music discovery tool (which is more annoying than it is beneficial, in my opinion) and even then unknown artists will need a shit ton of help to get their music to a larger audience. emphasis on the shit ton. so i guess we almost agree.
