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January 04, 2008

Trent Reznor posts 'disheartening' Niggy Tardust sales figures... 18% chose to pay...

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As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.

Of those paying,

3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC

Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.

If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul’s last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K – five times as many – sought out this new record, that’s great – right?

I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct – that most of the people that chose to download Saul’s record came from his or my own fan-base – is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage – primarily from fans – seems disheartening.

Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody’s getting rich off this project.


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10 Comments

#1 McKillaDaNilla says:

A better product might have yielded better results.

Stop surrounding yourself with yes-men Trent!

#2 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

it's a shame because this record is as solid a hip-hop record as you're going to hear. lesson to be learned from this: a marketing plan is still necessary to promote a record outside of your cult base.

#3 'disheartening'? says:

Considering the little advertisement and the status. These numbers are fairly impressive.

Even compared to Radioheads numbers, which were a much bigger hit in terms of people shelling out money for their Rainbows release. This is still an evolutionary step and with time these numbers will grow. Reznor was the first person to do it right with the perfect options, a "set" price, and HQ audio formats.

You have to look at this in terms of Williams still-new status and the word-of-mouth design for this release. Yes, I think this was much better than I had anticipated for the online version. I will also be purchasing the hard copy edition when it gets released soon.

All in all, this is more of a positive than a negative. And it's great that Reznor had the balls to push it this way. And yes this album is great. Well worth more than 5 dollars.

#4 Me, That's Who... says:

Baby steps, folks...

This is the alpha stage of the new revolution. Have patience, Trent...collectively, we will find a way to wiggle out from under the thumbs of major labels and still make a living at it.

#5 Jeremy says:

Hey, umm. . . I don't know about anyone else, but personally, I downloaded free, before paying for it, to make sure I liked it. So I know that simply from me personally, he has two sales, and one payed and one didn't. So, maybe that had some effect on his percentage.

That said, this was the best release of 2007 in my opinion, so y'know, don't be hating on it.

#6 Master N. Servant says:

Trent Raznor make for true revolutionary of the digital musical
Invest own money into freedom of the internets!
He is hero in my countrie of the New Digital Music Revolution
Long may he show Major Lable how to be ethical artist and businessman, new way for society and music
One step backward for Trent Raznor, two steps forward for the music on the internets

#7 Yes says:

I also downloaded both the free version and the paid version.

I wanted to hear it first and then buy it if I liked it. As did a number of my colleagues. I want to know what percentage of those downloads were of the same result.

#8 Echo Bloom says:

I just wrote a brief analysis of Mr. Reznor's experiment - take a look at Echo Bloom - http://www.echobloom.com/blog/

#9 Jaime Macias says:

I think TR is too close to the problem. I understand the financial model may not be proven yet in respect to what was spent on producing the album vs. revenue received. However the fact that Saul has sold 84% of the records in 3 months that he did in 3 years with his previous bears out the fact that this is a success. In addition their are 455% more tracked "sales" which can be seen as potential audience for touring, merch, video purchase, etc. The real corner to turn is the musicians understanding that people expect the music to be free at this point. The value exchange is going to come in other forms. Congratulations Saul, Trent, and everyone else involved. I believe you are moving the ball forward and this is the evolution of music as business.

#10 cooldead says:

i think selling FIVE copies of any album called "Niggy Tardust" is an achievement


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