T-Pain's Nappy Boy Digital not the online experience listeners are looking for

Trent Reznor isn't the only music celebrity getting his digital swerve on by going independent and using download data to plot likely tour stops on Google Earth. Hip-hop and R&B star T-Pain kicked off his own online distrubtion label, Nappy Boy Digital, earlier this month. But the Grammy-winning artist isn't thinking much beyond selling online, argues Markus Robinson of Black Web 2.0, saying that a the site won't thrive without the promised but undelivered social layer, free downloads and other features consumers are beginning to expect. You'd think an artist who depends on technology like voice processor Auto-Tune to stay on key (as evidenced by a live performance with Doug E Fresh) would be more savvy.

Trent Reznor is showing show business how it's done digitally

Trent Reznor is busy demonstrating how a bankable artist can go independent, give away music for free, and still make a mint. Though he initially expressed concern over an album he produced for hip-hopper Saul Williams that was released as a "pay what you will" download, he's changed his mind and now considers it a success — mostly because Williams made more money even with only twenty percent of fans paying for the album than he ever did at a label. And maybe more importantly, far more people heard the music. As for Reznor? His own giveaway of his latest album did pretty well in the marketplace as well, with a limited-edition box set garnering $750,000 and half a million CDs sold. So what, exactly, is the problem with the music business? As usual, greedy labels. More »

Nine Inch Nails offer free tracks on BitTorrent, double album for $5

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has made the first section of a four-part album available as a BitTorrent download. The rest of the 36-track album is available on the band's website or on Amazon.com, without copying restrictions, for $5. Reznor has been a constant critic of record labels and the music industry for years. Last year he admitted that he frequently pirated music himself. He included this statement in the upload notes for the album, Ghosts I: More »

Trent Reznor used shut-down music sharing site

Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nails frontman who encouraged his fans to steal music, had a favorite site to steal from. It was Oink, the music-sharing site that got shut down last week, as he told New York:

I'll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted... it existed because it filled a void of what people want.

Reznor also feels "hustled" when he visits iTunes. Maybe he'll donate to help The Pirate Bay build their BitTorrent replacement. (Photo by AP/Louis Lanzano)

Radiohead spits in the face of both Apple and Amazon.com

All the record-label kevetching that the Internet is killing their livelihood may actually be true. But it's not college kids sharing files in broadband-equipped dorms that they need to worry about. Radiohead is releasing its new album sans label. Novel, but the interesting bit is that the band is giving a choice to consumers: Pay $82 for a super-fancy, boxed edition of In Rainbows, or download the album — for whatever you think it's worth. This follows a similar campaign by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails who says once his band's label obligations are completed, it will release digital albums for about $4. Of course it's not just the music industry that should be concerned. More »

Trent Reznor advises fans to fight the good fight, pirate

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