Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has spoken out on his role at Beats 1 radio, the just launched streaming service which features shows hosted by the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and more. Reznor‘s role originally sprung out of being the Chief Creative Officer of Beats Music, which was later acquired by Apple and rolled out today as a radio suite part of Apple Music—the new streaming service from the tech giant. Discussing the service with Rollingstone.com, Reznor stated:
“I think having access to all the music in the world is great, but it then starts to place a burden on what the experience is like navigating through, now that you have access to everything. I think that naturally places the burden on having an experience be great. I want that feeling of walking into an independent record shop, if there are still any that exist, like Amoeba [Records], and being delighted by the choices and the way music is presented to you with love and care. It’s exciting. And you leave with stuff you wouldn’t have dreamed you wanted and you’re excited to listen and share it and experience it.”
Reznor is also among the number of artists releasing exclusive music via the service, with an instrumental/outtake versions of “The Fragile” and an instrumental version of “With Teeth” now available for streaming via the Nine Inch Nails connect page. Speaking of that, he offered:
“…The first thing I’ve put up is something I couldn’t have done or wouldn’t have done anywhere else, which is the entire album The Fragile as an instrumental-outtakes compilation that plays like a regular album but sounds very different without my voice in the way. And there’s different arrangements to certain songs and oddly that makes for a different, complementary music experience. So that’ll be there as soon as you download the app, you’ll see that in, on my Connect page.”
Reznor also spoke further of growing importance of streaming music:
“As an artist, there’s the difficult transition from realizing that where you used to sell an item that you got X amount for – those days are over. And the toothpaste is not going to go back in the tube. And people aren’t going to suddenly want to buy CDs again and feel good about overpaying for them. That’s a fact. Most of my peers have swallowed the bitter pill that I have swallowed, which is that you don’t make a lot of money selling music these days. It’s just the way it is. I don’t think that’s the way it should be, but that is the way it is. So I’m excited to accept that.”
On what new music he himself has in the works:
“Yeah, I’ve been messing around with some things. And I went through a period of “tour, tour, tour.” Things right after another, with scores and what I’ve been doing whilst working on Apple Music here is what I call “laboratory time,” more experiments without any definite agenda. It’s not for a thing, it’s not a record I’m trying to finish in a month. It’s more just feeling around in the dark and seeing what sounds interesting. It’s nice to do that every few years to try and reinvent and discover and try to learn about yourself and what feels exciting to you as an artist.”
He was also asked of his current thoughts on Marilyn Manson, following this Reddit AMA which referenced a comment made by Reznor back in 2009 that referred to Marilyn Manson as a “dopey clown”:
“No, I mean, I really haven’t thought much about that guy. I wish him the best and we were good friends at one point in the past, and we became not such good friends. People change, and I don’t go around carrying it on my shoulders at all. So I have said many, many stupid things in my career. That wasn’t as bad as some, so I’m glad that you focused on that one. Notice, I didn’t deny saying that or my feeling didn’t change.”
