The Tale Of Two Nine Inch Nails Masters

Here's an except from a story I posted on Forbes that looks at the strategy behind the dual master release of the latest Nine Inch Nails album. Keep in mind that it's written for an audience that's not audio sophisticated.

"Don't look now but Trent Reznor has done it again. Always ahead of the pack in some way, Reznor just took a stand in the the so-called loudness wars by releasing the new Nine Inch Nails album, Hesitation Marks, with two different masters; the standard compressed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life master, and a less compressed "audiophile" version.

For those of you not aware of the battleground, the loudness wars are basically a result of the insecurity of record execs, artists, producers and audio engineers everywhere that if their song is played right before or after another that’s louder, the listener will somehow deem it inferior. As a result, there’s a constant battle that rages behind the scenes in mastering facilities everywhere in an effort to make every song sound as loud as possible, even to the point where a mastering engineer (the specialized boffin who puts the final audio sheen on a song mix) will get the job based on being able to make the song louder than a competitor.

This is a battle that’s been raging since the 50s, and has resulted in mastering engineers usually violating their own collective good taste and judgement in making songs as loud as possible just to keep working. After all, lose a loudness shoot-out to a competitor and you might not get chance at the next record that needs mastering." Read the entire article on Forbes.

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What A NIN Concert Looks Like From On Stage

I thought this was a lot of fun. Most musicians who have gigged a lot know what it's like on stage, but I think we're all curious what it's like to be on stage with other bands. In February of 2009 Rob Sheridan was allowed onstage for a song ("Burn") when Nine Inch Nails played in Melbourne. He gives us a musician's-eye view of what it's like to be in the band that night.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The World's Most Important Drum Loop

Depending upon which musical world you live in, you may or may not know about a short 5.2 second drum loop that has spawned several musical subcultures, from hip hop to jungle to hardcore techno to drum and bass.

The loop is what's knows as the "Amen Break," and comes from a short drum break on the B side of a 1969 record by funk band The Winstons. The song is called "Amen, Brother" and the drummer was Gregory Cylvester "G.C." Coleman. The break has been used on everything from NWA's "Straight Outta Compton," to Oasis "D'You Know What I Mean" to Nine Inch Nail's "The Perfect Drug," to Lupe Fiasco's "Streets On Fire" to car commercials and television shows The Amazing Race and Futurama.

As these things frequently go, neither the drummer, the band nor the songwriter (Richard Spencer) has ever received any royalties or clearance fees, despite the fact that the influence of this short break has had a profound effect on music of the last 30 years.

Take a look at this brief history of the Amen Break, and you'll instantly recognize it.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.


You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.


Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

"Meet Your Master" NIN Multitrack

OK, I admit it. I'm old school. I'm one of those people who actually like my audio clean, but you won't get much of that in this look at the multitrack of "Meet Your Master" from Nine Inch Nails. The song is from the 2007 album Year Zero.

Virtually every track is distorted here. I wonder how much was intentional, how much was done during recording, and how much was done during mixing? What you will find in the song is a great groove and a great arrangement, which are two elements that can make a song a hit.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Trent Rezor Does It Again

If you read this blog you know that Trent Reznor is frequently featured here for one reason or another and that's because he's on the cutting edge of the use of social media in music.

From excellent marketing with cutting edge sales incentives to intelligent and useful communication with his tribe (his fans) to viral marketing through flash drives, Trent's been there before anyone else.

Now he's once more broken the mold with the release of his new Nine Inch Nails (NIN) iPhone app. Just the fact that he's developed one is news, but the fact that it's both useful and easy to use is even bigger news.

Here's a video that explains it.

Secondary Ticketing

A dirty industry secret has recently come out into the open that may change the way concert tickets are sold.

It's always been curious that all the best seats in the house were gone even to the first standing in line at the box office. For many years, it's always been assumed that the ticket brokers and scalpers used their influence for these tickets, and while that might be partially true, the true reason has finally come to light. The acts themselves are given those tickets, who then sell them to the ticket brokers for a far higher price that the face value of the ticket.

The revelation all came in the wake of a major blowup by Bruce Springsteen in recent weeks. Instead of being able to simply purchase a ticket to see the Boss, fans were bumped to the secondary TicketsNow.com - even though comparable tickets were available on the mainline Ticketmaster.com. Springsteen wanted nothing to do with the practice, and immediately shouted down the scheme. Unfortunately, plenty of artists gladly participate, to the detriment of their fans.

Nine Inch Nails alter-ego Trent Reznor recently reaffirmed the dirty dealings in a blog post.

"The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it."

Fans are tired of paying inflated prices far above the face value of the ticket, and in this economy, they'll soon be forced to act. We should see some tours with lots of unsold seats this summer.