Some Random Dude

Some Random Dude is a blog by P.J. Onori that covers design & technology in the broadest sense possible.

Posts Tagged ‘nine-inch-nails’

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Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts Album is About MUCH More Than Music.

If you have been reading this blog for even a moderate length of time, you are most likely aware of the unusually high amount of Nine Inch Nails articles on this site (seen here and here to name a few). Considering the general theme of this blog, I could see how this could be seen as strange to many. Still, I tend to write a lot about how digital media (which design-technology intersects with) is changing not only mainstream media, but the society which consumes it – which in turn impacts how we do our work. For the past two years, Nine Inch Nails has really been on the frontlines of pushing media away from the consolidated, copyright-heavy, corporate-run model to a distributed, grassroots, artist-run model.

Last night, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV, an independently-produced album that is available for download for the price of $5. There are 36 songs in this album, so that $5 looks even more reasonable than ever. For those of you into the tangible, CDs can be purchased as well. Additionally, 9 songs are available completely for free – no questions asked. While this is distribution model is new, it is not new – we have seen it with In Rainbows and Niggy Tardust, each with their own little tweaks on it. However, make no mistake, Ghosts is unlike any other album distribution we have seen.
Read On…

NIN Remix – UGC Strain Mutates Towards Music

We all know what video UGC has done to change the face of modern media. Video is beginning to show signs of a strong bottom-up structure forming. In turn, mainstream media has had to adapt by both slowly integrating UGC into their model and putting their content onto UGC networks. While video UGC has taken off, music has not followed suit due, almost assuredly, to the music industry’s absolute resistance to evolve. Until now, the stonewalling of progress by the RIAA and other music industry leaders has been relatively successful in terms of the big picture. There are no YouTube scale sites offering independent, community created music. In my opinion, there is plenty of talent out there, but these sorts of movements usually need a jumpstart in order to pull in the combination of a large community and ample traffic to become self-sustaining. For YouTube, the early inclusion of unwarranted copyrighted video (whether intentional or unintentional) was that jumpstart – now TV content is a much smaller piece of the puzzle as a large content creating community has been fostered. The recent launch of NIN Remix may just be the jumpstart for UGC music. UGC music will become mainstream. The only question is if NIN Remix will be what gets the snowball rolling.
Read On…

Nine Inch Nails 'Year Zero' Album Available for Listening – Trent Reznor Gets What the RIAA Does Not

Trent is at it again. Just like what was done for With_Teeth, Nine Inch Nails released Year Zero for listening before the April 17th release date. Listen away.

As if the RIAA did not look bad enough as it is, when you have high profile musical artists that does something this progressive, the organization looks even worse. With a very forward-thinking marketing campaign, allowing the public to freely listen to the album before its release, not to mention absolutely amazing music, Trent Reznor is basically showing the rest of the music industry how things should be done. Year Zero has easily been the biggest music-related event on the internet this year – for good reason. I myself have already listened to the album and have pre-ordered the album and I suggest you do too.

New Nine Inch Nails Viral Campaign Proving Media 2.0′s Reach

As the Nine Inch Nails viral campaign continues, its brilliance is starting to show. Nevermind the released tracks or the storyline being concocted for this campaign – do not get me wrong, they are both amazing – but that is entirely beside the point of this article.

With a few small websites, a couple flash drives containing MP3 files, and a whole boat-load of creativity, this viral campaign has caught fire – with three articles hitting the front page of Digg and tons of buzz generated elsewhere (online and offline). The Year Zero viral campaign has definitely succeeded and continues to draw attention much longer than the usual “marketing spikes” do. From my view, this is a major score for the media 2.0 corner. With the media/advertising blitz of the Super Bowl still resonating I thought it would be interesting to see how the marketing campaigns of media 1.0′s Goliath compared to the Nine Inch Nails viral project. Read On…

Daily Delicious – Nine Inch Nails New Album Spawns Abstract Web Sites

Here I was, just about to write about microformats, when this came along…

A new Nine Inch Nails album is coming out in April. Thanks to our good friend Kellie, and her great link comment, I learned about a series of abstract websites pertaining to the theme and (from the rumors) storyline of the new album. To say the new album is political is like saying the sun is warm – just a warning to those of you that do not enjoy politics. Yes, I know, this has been done before. Yes, I know, this is a form of marketing. Still, the tone and the way it comes off just seems different than other viral marketing campaigns.

A lot of people are not big fans of viral marketing. I, however, see a great beauty to it. Most viral marketing I have been exposed to is quite creative and engages the user’s imagination. On top of it, it is much less money-driven than traditional advertising methods. With viral marketing, success is dependent on the individual to appreciate it enough to want to share it. Traffic and buzz can be artificially generated, but I have noticed that method tends to fizzle out very quickly if there is not a genuine interest from the public. I rather like the idea of marketing that is depends on the public’s interest rather than cash. I see how this project can turn people off. Still, for myself, I find it absolutely fascinating.

UPDATE – New Nine Inch Nails song found on a usb drive in a bathroom in portugal. This is getting cooler and cooler by the minute. In case the URLs hosting the MP3 die, you can download it from Some Random Dude (sorry, this is absolutely killing my bandwidth).

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