Reznor 'Leaks' 400 GB Of High Def Concert Footage
from the keep-it-up dept
Trent Reznor is making it awfully difficult for me to finish the presentation I'm giving about him next week at MidemNet, because he keeps on doing stuff that should be mentioned in that presentation (I may have to ask the MidemNet folks for more time!). The latest is a post on the NIN.com site (which, annoyingly, doesn't have permalinks for his posts -- though others repost it in the forums on the site) saying:The internet is full of surprises these days.It's stuff like this that makes fans love Reznor that much more. While bands like Radiohead tried to get people to pay just to remix their songs, Reznor makes it fun to be a fan. As the link above to the forum notes, the content is now available via BitTorrent, and everyone at NIN headquarters is looking forward to what comes out of it -- though, they point out that with so much high def video, it's really mainly targeted at expert users first, and amateurs are probably better off waiting a bit until other copies are made available in easier to handle formats.
I was contacted by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives who SOMEHOW managed to film a substantial amount (over 400 GB!) of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of our Lights in the Sky tour. Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent.
If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.
Oh yeah, you didn't hear this from me.
posted by trent reznor at 12:56pm
Funny to see this in contrast to how Warner Music and the other record labels are dealing with online videos, where they demand money for every usage, pissing off the very musicians they're supposed to represent. Once again, Reznor is leading the way. I'm just hoping he takes a little time off so that I can get this presentation done and not have it be out of date on the day of the presentation.
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Filed Under: business models, concerts, music, nine inch nails, trent reznor, video
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Conveniently enough...
My sister is going to love this.
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:D
Holy crap!
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Even Cooler
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Re: Even Cooler
Anyone who keeps up with Reznor (much less films his shows in HD), would probably assume he would post it up for the world to have for free.
It's probably just somebody or group of bodies wanting to achieve that uber fan status. Good on the fans that did this though. Like Mike said it's fun to be a Reznor fan.
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Re: Even Cooler
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Of course, I am biased. My family has known Josh, drummer extraordinaire, since he was in diapers.
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Back to the topic at hand: Rock on, Rezner. Keep doing this kind of thing.
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Re: NIN-Trent!
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Josh, BTW, has one heck of a musical family. Mom...concert piano. Dad...plays tuba like a trumpet. Brother (Jason)...plays, well, darn near everything and has been with GD for quite a while.
Damn. All I can do is play a Kazoo. Life at times seems so unfair.
And, of course, NIN is about Reznor.
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Yeah, it's a niggling detail, but I like feeling superior.
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It's hard to create his type of music (PHM was the only good album) when you're a famous rich guy that people idolize.
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The Content Is Cool. The Message Is Cooler.
He sets it out as a challenge "if any of you can find the link ..." with a more subtle, and more difficult, challenge "I'll bet some enterprising fan ..."
He doesn't promise anything. No "first place" for "the best video editing uploaded to my video site" - just a simple, do with it as you please. But there's the very subtle acknowledgment that Trent will see it and acknowledge those which are "pretty cool." By eliminating "places" and "prizes" he implies that amateur content can be as "pretty cool" as professional content. It also says "I'm not doing this so you can watch my concerts, I want to see what you folks can DO with it."
So, the take-away here isn't "put all of your video online" - the take-away for bands to learn from is "interact with your fans in language and form that doesn't make them feel like they are just your consumers or that some of them are better than others." He gets across a lot of information in a fairly terse, friendly message that is at once counter-culture, knowing, current, and open-ended; yet still establishes boundaries and parameters and done with intent.
Also interesting will be see what, if any, money comes out of this. Because that will be what the "bigger picture" will ask. OK, great. Our fans like us. But how are we going to make any money off of them? Unfortunately, they probably won't realize they've answered their own question. The costs for this zero - they already own the HD cameras, they were already "on", they were already recording. They weren't planning on doing anything with it anyway. So, the better question is: why not?
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Clearly NIN is getting it right! Kudos to Trent and his staff --- er, "subversives."
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Some of the footage is amazing (until it crashes your piece of &*(& machine). Some of the footage isn't. The point is, it's free, and whatever comes from it will be a positive experience for anyone who chooses to use it, watch it, or sit around drinking Molsons in front of someone's monitor and bust on it.
See, he loves us.
WAR
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think about it.
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think about it.
Um. Yes. That was the whole point. Reznor leaked it.
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Even MORE good news!
Good for you, Trent! You are the wind beneath my wings.
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Where can I find
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Working on the details... There should be something. Just trying to figure out the best way to set it up.
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Stop posting about me.
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Probably the best praise so far.
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A post about NIN
My comment is that I love NIN.
Music is awesome (I know its my opinion, but its my favorite areas of music). And he is a marketing genius who loves his fans. Loving fans can get you a long way artists out there! That means no major labels because they are not pro-fan, they are only pro-money and pro-greed. Ditch them!
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This is not a damn "marketing stunt!"
It's hard to create his type of music (PHM was the only good album) when you're a famous rich guy that people idolize.
Um, you do realize that Trent was on the cover of rolling stone back in the day when TDS came out, right? That was in 1996. TDS was also the album that rocketed NIN to fame and fortune, so if your going to use fortune, fame and Rolling Stone to deem NIN "just another band" then at least get your facts straight.
As for the release of the footage, Trent is NOT doing this for marketing purposes. I can tell you that with absolute certainty. That's what everyone said about the Year Zero ARG..."oh, it's just an elaborate marketing STUNT..." Trent understandably got pissed because it wasn't a marketing stunt, it was a way to make his music interactive to his fans and to expand his ART. Beyonce freaking Knowles doing a horrific Pepsi commercial is a marketing stunt. Radiohead's In Rainbows was a marketing stunt. This is a Christmas present, not a marketing stunt!
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Same as CSTrigger said, time to piss off Comcast.
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A subtle middle finger
At which point, I think it will offer some vindication to Trent spending what appears to be a small fortune in seeding this material out. It will also extend a middle finger to Vivendi/Universal for at the least not forking over some cash for production. I think at the most a deal is cut along the way to sell one of the mixes. Plus it keeps the fans occupied isn't a bad idea.
We're all now more patiently rabidly waiting for the Year Zero follow-up.
And the more to come part: A live webcast(s) from studio sessions or some show, it was a high pick on the survey. Showtime or HBO picking up Year Zero would be nice.
And of course some software contest would be cool. Tackled, audio and video so far with the content leaks or releases. Next software?
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NIN has always been all about revolutionizing the idea of a concert, and have continuously outdone themselves with each tour. A major part of this has always been some kind of video release to show performances from their shows. Since their DVD release of And All That Could Have Been, their tour footage has been top-notch. I believe their HD-DVD release of Beside You In Time won several awards for best HD-DVD.
He definitely takes things beyond just simple marketing. He goes out of his way to do things for his fans that simply aren't done in the music industry, and this is just another prime example of that.
I have never understood the concept of shunning any band just because they managed to make it big. I mean, isn't that more or less the goal? Nobody gets into any business so they can stay broke all of the time. With NIN, at least you know you're fully getting your money's worth. He has taken the money he has made over the past two decades and continuously spends it in ways to further interact the fans, to make his live performances better, and to ultimately immerse you in his art.
So in a way, you're right. NIN has stopped being a band. They're so much more than that now.
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If you do post a video, or transcript online...
Don't know if you're still checking comments for this thread, but if you do post any material from your presentation online, I'd love to post something about it on our NIN news site. Really, I'd just like to read it myself, and I figure people who come to my site feel the same way. Drop me an email - thanks;
--m.
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Another Version of the truth
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