Valuing Content: Nine Inch Nails

Finding this video so quickly after yesterday’s post proves some­thing. More on making money from media content, even though people can get it for free. Mike Masnick of Techdirt describes the ways Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have created a prof­it­able business from their music, after they sacked their record label in 2007. In short, they give away most of their music to connect with fans, but then create premium goods and live exper­i­ences to give those fans a reason to spend money. I like Masnick’s asser­tion that they’ve learned how to ‘compete with free’. His own com­mentary on the present­a­tion is here.

Note that this isn’t the same as digital maoism. Reznor and the rest are still focused on making music and being rock stars, not selling T-​​shirts and so forth. Masnick also makes the point that getting all the extra “business” stuff done is a useful job for an agent or even a label, and might help justify their existence.

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Possibly related:

• Valuing Content: Dragon Age
• The Trouble with Social Content
• The Value of Content in a Stream