Nine Inch Nails pulls a Radiohead

Trent Reznor has done the unthinkable, and broke away from his record label. He released a new CD, along with a DVD, and signed vinyl, which can be purchased online for $10, $75, and $300, respectively. I love the idea. I grew up on nine inch nails, and although I don’t listen to them much anymore, I think this is a great move for him. There are so many independent labels making money right now, he realized that with the brand power his name alone carries, that he doesn’t need a record label to distribute.
I think he is also realizing much of his fan base doesn’t watch MTV or listen to the radio, they think for themselves. This makes the label useless. As you can see from the article, it is a huge success for him. I hope more and more artists start doing this. If they do, I suspect we can look forward to a lot more creativity in the mainstream music scene, which has been missing for a very long time.