The RIAA shoots its own artists in the foot...

[bladespark]

...and may be shooting themselves in the foot while they're at it.

Nine Inch Nails adopts an unusual marketing campaign for their latest CD. Using USB drives left in concert hall bathrooms, NIN leaks a few tracks, and as fans will be fans, the tracks are quickly spread all over the net. The campaign itself is interesting, but the RIAA's response to it is... well... Here's what Reuters had to say about it: "Another Web posting alleged that all this activity resulted in entertainment blog Idolator and other sites receiving e-mail from the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), demanding that they remove the MP3s from their sites. A representative for the RIAA, the lobby group for the major U.S. labels, confirms this seemingly mind-boggling move."

Mind boggling. As in "mind bogglingly stupid." Yep, The RIAA sent cease and desist letters to people who were sharing the leaked tracks, despite the fact that the label had signed off on NIN's innovative campaign!

Most likely in response to this idiotic crackdown, NIN has now released most, if not all, of the album on its website.

Meanwhile NIN musician Trent Reznor is letting everybody know how he feels about the RIAA's policies. Yup, he's telling his fans to go ahead and steal his music. Apparently he was appalled by the way the label took advantage of his dedicated fan base to jack up the prices of his CDs and complained, asking the label to drop the price to that comparable to the amount commanded by other artists. Since they've refused to do so, he's given fans the go ahead to forget about buying the overpriced albums, and just pirate them.

And while he may not technically have the legal right to do so, as one fan says, "The fact that Reznor has no rights to declare that his music be stolen is exactly why it should be stolen."

Comments

[palshife-sakura.livejournal.com]

In a funny way it was the leaked tracks that got me so hyped up to buy the album. To pre-order it, even. Never mind the fact that I'm a big Nine Inch Nails fan, I liked the whole backstory he gave the album, I liked getting little tidbits of it through those leaked tracks, and was quite pleased when I got to listen to the whole thing before it even showed up in my mailbox.

Then again, the RIAA never thinks from the fan's standpoint.

[silveradept]

Stupid, stupid music executives! You just killed your Year Zero sales there and encouraged an entire fanbase to go pirate more works in retaliation.

[kaura-nighthawk.livejournal.com]

...this... is... intensely amusing.

Reznor, you have made a new fan!

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

That's so dumb!
It boggles me that people with power are often so clueless.

[wolfmare.livejournal.com]

You know, kudos to him. I wasn't a fan before, hell I can't even remember if I've ever listened to them... But now, I probably will, just because he understands things from an outsider's perspective.

Either way, I won't be buying the cd.

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

i have never listened to NIN before now, but this is enough to make me go and find out everything i can about them. it doesn't even really matter whether or not they are "good musicians" or not...

[kyoshyu.livejournal.com]

I read about that about a month ago, and I'll I could do is glare at the screen and hoped it was April's Fool. The RIAA needs to go down, period.

And three cheers to Trent Reznor. The guy's always had balls, and now he's proving it to the industry. I hope others follow his case and screw the RIAA over.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

"Piracy" will always exist in some form.

But the REASON why it is so rampant now is because of silly shit like this. The more people who feel they are beiung cheated, ripped off and generally taken for a ride, the more they will be willing to resort to and aid and abet priacy. Look at it - they've made people so hostile to the injury that many fans not only see no problem with piracy but even consider it to be a GOOD thing - and that's even reached one of the artists.

Until the industry (and that applies to all copywrite industries) plays fair people will always look for a way to break the rules - and that's a battle they can't really win