Friday, January 04, 2008

Trent Reznor: Saul Williams' Sales "Disheartening"

From Trent Reznor:

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.

1 comment:

sean coon said...

which he followed with:

"...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.

But… Saul’s music is in more peoples’ iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He’ll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can..."

williams sold 84% as many niggy tardust albums in the past two months (28,322) than he has his last album through a major since 2004 (33,897). i'd bet that the $5 split between him and reznor was more profitable than compared to his label deal.

plus, 154,449 total albums moved into music fans hands. what marketing cost/ROI would you affix to that transaction?