Ya gotta wonder how much longer record labels are going to continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

Nine Inch Nails has been one of the most innovative bands on the planet when it comes to adopting technology. Aside from using it in their actual productions, they also have made raw cuts of the songs available in GarageBand format for people to pick up, remix, and screw around with.

Recently, they started dropping thumbdrives loaded with their new album around concert venues. If you were one of the lucky concert-goers, you got to hear the new album (or at least a lot of it). So what’s the problem? I’ll let Billboard Magazine explain:

According to one post, a male fan, allegedly by happenstance, found a USB drive in a bathroom stall during a NIN concert at the Coliseum in Lisbon, Portugal. This flash drive (yes, Reznor’s idea) contained an MP3 of album track “My Violent Heart.” Additional USB drives were purportedly found in Barcelona and Manchester, England; they included MP3s of album tracks “Me, I’m Not” and “In This Twilight,” respectively.

Excited fans then began swapping and sharing these music files online. Another Web posting alleged that all this activity resulted in entertainment blog Idolator and other sites receiving e-mail from the Recording Industry Association of America, demanding that they remove the MP3s from their sites. An RIAA representative confirms this, a move that boggles the minds of many. “These f*cking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on,” the source says.

Ironically, with its numerous pirated downloads available, the whole album has not leaked yet. According to a source, the only leaks are the ones Reznor approved himself. And whether he realizes it or not, Reznor may be building a new option for presenting music that augments the existing CD/tour scenario. “It’s not about slapping something on top of an existing experience,” the source says. “It must be its own entity. Make the experience as immersive as possible for fans.”

God knows you wouldn’t want all the hype that leaking the album could generate. Instead you have to penny-pinch and SHUT IT DOWN.

Morons. There’s a reason CD sales are down, and it’s because the idiots producing them have no idea how to market them in the year 2007.

via /.

Technorati Tags: nin, nine inch nails, trent reznor, riaa

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 10:35 am and is filed under Stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.