The same democratizing Internet that leveled the playing field for the label-free TrentCo may be the same one that disassembles him: It's only a matter of time before his fans find out how easy it is to discover more interesting electronic music. In the mid-'90s, Reznor alone was the way your average Hackers fan connected with the cutting edge, jacking in via his collaborations (Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert) and the signees to his Interscope imprint, Nothing (Autechre, Squarepusher). But now, just like Trent himself, everyone is one MySpace friend away from Ricardo Villalobos or Keith Fullerton Whitman or Richard Devine or Burial or Carlos Giffoni or Fuck Buttons or whomever. Not to mention it's easier than ever to make your own electronic music. There's photos of Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross looming over mountains of gear—impossible tangles of wires, museum-ready rows of pedals, monolithic switchboards that might as well be manned by Lily Tomlin. But with some time and the right plug-ins, your friend might make a similar record on ProTools (if your friend could invite Adrian Belew to play a few ripping solos) that could escape a blind taste-test and grow to the heights of being one of the many records on Mush or Asphodel or Plug Research that don't get written about.I don't disagree with Weingarten's assessment of Trent Reznor's internet a la carte experiment, music-wise: it is "basically a minimalist record that coasts on one's predilection for NINoise." But suggesting that by putting out a mediocre ambient album, Reznor is imperiling himself by placing his work in direct competition with "betters" like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Burial is faintly ridiculous. First off, it assumes that by potentially referring his listenership to these "more interesting" artists, Reznor is engaging in a zero-sum game that he can only lose; perhaps upon first listen to Multiples or Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 the unwashed hordes will experience a Damascene conversion and abandon Nine Inch Nails, but I sincerely doubt it. Secondly, NIN's traditional metier of goth-grunge-industrial topped with adenoidal vocals will always outsell the Warp catalogue about a billion to one, even if Reznor's art project/market experiment exposes him as a middling presence in "serious" electronic music at best. Finally, Weingarten's argument presupposes that if the cloth-ears willing to swear fealty to the NIN "brand" ever figure out that they can get their hands on the means of production, the ensuing democratization would expose Reznor as...well, I'm not sure. In fact, Weingarten never really states why NIN fans making their own records would be a bad thing for Trent. I guess that the threat is implied, the same way that punk destroyed its bloated corporate rock antecedents, and if you believe that, I have two $300 floor seats to the Eagles reunion tour to sell you.
I agree, I suppose, with Weingarten's gripe that there's more ink on the hundred-dollar bills in Reznor's wallet than many worthwhile electronic albums ever earn in press. But that's not Trent's fault; in fact, as Weingarten himself notes, Reznor was, circa 1995, the sole conduit to the "cutting edge" of electronic music, collaborating with Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert, and signing Autechre and Squarepusher to his Nothing imprint. While MySpace and mp3 blogs and BitTorrent have ensured that these worthwhile artists are now only a click away, it would seem that Trent has long been sowing the seeds of his putative destruction, though I doubt that's how he'd see it. And sure, by flipping off Jimmy Iovine, Reznor's simply discovered a way to pocket all of the loot from future Nine Inch Nails releases; but how cynical do you have to be to see an artist controlling the distribution of his own work and reaping the fruit of his labors as, well, cynical? Yeah, the rich get richer; by selling out all 2,500 copies of the $300 super-luxe limited edition boxed set of Ghosts (oooh FLAC master tracks on Blu-Ray DVD!), Trent's already hauled in $750,000 before costs. But at least he's earning it.
For a more in-depth perspective on the business-side of Ghosts, I recommend reading Bob Lefsetz's take in its entirety, but I'll excerpt the most relevant bit, which catches a bit of what Weingarten doesn't address:
Many people can’t even LISTEN to Nine Inch Nails. It gives them a headache. They believe it’s akin to camping on the factory floor. Who gives a shit about these people. Hell, it adds to NIN’s cachet. Trent’s not owned by MTV, not "Rolling Stone", not Volkswagen or "Grey’s Anatomy" or all the sponsors/advertisers the mainstream says you must be in bed with. Trent is owned by his FANS! And what they like about him is he’s only about the art, he lives in their generation, not the twentieth century. He’s willing to try new things, the way the Beatles did, the way all the classic acts did.
Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV site
