The Beginning of the End?

First, it was Radiohead. Now it's Reznor.

Less than a month after publicly calling executives at his music label unprintable names, rocker Trent Reznor has signaled that his days of working for a record company are over.

The only official member of the band Nine Inch Nails, Reznor announced Monday that the group is now "free of any recording contract with any label." Representatives from Reznor's music label, Universal Music Group, were unavailable for comment.

Reznor provided few details in a note on the band's Web site about how the group plans to proceed, but his announcement raised hopes among fans that he will follow the lead of British band Radiohead, which last week announced it would handle sales and distribution for its upcoming album, In Rainbows without the backing of a label.

I hope this becomes the new model for music distribution. Basically, the RIAA is really good at screwing the musician, and wants to be really good at screwing us, the consumer - by underpaying artists, for their wanting to continue overcharging us for physical media which contains said work, and wishing to encumber any digital formats of music.

So instead of fighting the machine that is the RIAA, why not just completely take it out of the picture? I love the direction that Radiohead is going. Their CD comes out today and they are making it publicly available for everyone to download - no charge necessary, but you can pay for it if you wish. Just for their willingness to make this gesture, I think I may drop them $20 - twice as much as what I would pay for the CD through Rhapsody. This is how I want my music distrubuted and I want to see the artists receive all of my money for making it, and not some power hungry behemoth of a middle-man.

Now I'm just waiting to see what direction Trent goes here... and waiting to see how many may follow suit.