That is some radical thinking (genius but radical). Hearken back a few years when Shawn Fanning and friend Sean Parker first released Napster, the P2P file sharing software in June 1999. Napster enabled digital media files (mostly songs and movies) to be shared among a network. Napster also bore a firestorm of ugly legal challenges to the service. Noteworthy was the band Metallica that tried to have their songs removed from the network and the sharers of their songs (their fans) banned from the service. While Napster only facilitated the transfer of copyrighted material, it became the primary target of the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA), who thought it better to sue 12-year old users of file sharing rather invest in solutions with the music industry to find a legal and profitable way to share music files.
Well, we all know iTunes and the rest is history or at least we are on the path. Nine Inch Nails began streaming its latest CD, Year Zero from its website in advance of its debut through commercial sources. The band also distributed tracks from the album on USB flash drives at concerts. The album is to arrive in stores in April 17th. Now Reznor is utilizing another Apple product to not only share his music but enable his fans and other musicians to deconstruct, alter, remix and mash-up. You can download for free the single “The Hand That Feeds” and “Survivalism,” in multi-track form to Apple’s music production software, Garageband3.
From Macminute,
"For quite some time I've been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks -- to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what's there," Reznor says. "After spending some quality time sitting in hotel rooms on a press tour, it dawned on me that the technology now exists and is already in the hands of some of you. I got to work experimenting and came up with something I think you'll enjoy."
"What I'm giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session,” Reznor explains. "This is the entire thing bounced over from the actual Pro Tools session we recorded it into. I imported and converted the tracks into AppleLoop format so the size would be reasonable and the tempo flexible."
As Reznor invites,
“Listen. Change the tempo. Add new loops. Chop up the vocals. Turn me into a woman. Replay the guitar. Anything you'd like."
"…it's fun to mess around with. I've now heard a country version of the track as well as an abstract Latin interpretation). There are some copyright issues involved, so read the notice that pops up. Giving this away is an experiment. I'm interested to see what comes of it, what issues are raised and what the results are."
Hats off to Reznor for giving his fans not only his music but an opportunity to participate with him in creating music. It is an experiment. Through experiments, we grow, change and create. That sounds like an artist, a musician. It sounds like the opposite of the RIAA. Reznor has proven that he not only is a major recording artist but he understands his craft, his fans and the transformation of media that technology has created.
