TRENT REZNOR MAKES $1.6 MILLION IN FIRST WEEK WITH GHOSTS
Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 1:29pm by Vince Neilstein
According to Billboard, Trent Reznor has added to his already posh fortune of $750,000 in two days since we last reported about the new Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts last week. The new numbers include all formats and sales configurations of the new album, not just the 2,500 copies of the limited $300 edition which sold out almost immediately. From Billboard:
The online release of the new Nine Inch Nails album “Ghosts I-IV” resulted in just under 800,000 transactions in its first week, totaling $1.6 million in revenue, the band revealed. Orders include free and paid downloads, as well as online orders for physical products like various limited-edition vinyl releases, CDs, and a dual-CD box set. NIN will not release traditional sales figures to SoundScan.
Of course Trent (like Radiohead) has benefited from years of major label marketing dollars, and of course there were costs associated with producing the items, especially those in the super-special-limited edition. But still, that is one hell of a take, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that an established artist no longer needs a major label to help them out. Obviously this isn’t the answer for establishing a new band, but it’s still food for thought. Major labels ought to be very fearful of what their established artist can now do — or they can wise up and do the same.
-VN
Holy fucking damn
Go Trent!
Acts like NIN are the bread and butter of record labels. They spend little to promote them because they are already established with die hard fans and sell well with little radio push and magazine juice. Without cash cows like NIN, what will they do for money?
Maybe this means the labels will focus more on building up talent. It’s gotten to the point where a label contract a band, produces an album, sends one single to radio and if it hits they continue the relationship whereas if it misses the band is dropped. This could be good news for new acts as much as it is for established acts. Record labels won’t be able to cash in on their own greed so much anymore. They’ll actually have to put effort into making a profit.
I don’t know if I’m making any sense. I can sort of visualize my point, but all the alcohol makes it difficult to delineate. Maybe I should try again in the morning. If I can remeber what I was doing.
Bob Lefsetz had a great take on this.
I’d link the article, but anyone with a brain and an interest in the industry should already be receiving the newsletter.