Update – June 15th 11:45am:
YouTube have since issued the following statement to Pitchfork regarding Reznor‘s comments:
“The overwhelming majority of labels and publishers have licensing agreements in place with YouTube to leave fan videos up on the platform and earn revenue from them. Today the revenue from fan uploaded content accounts for roughly 50 percent of the music industry’s YouTube revenue. Any assertion that this content is largely unlicensed is false. To date, we have paid out over $3 billion to the music industry–and that number is growing year on year.”
Original Story:
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor took part in a group interview regarding Apple Music, of which he serves as the Chief Creative Officer. Reznor took part in the chat, which also touches upon the future of how music is consumed, alongside fellow Apple Music bigwigs, Jimmy Iovine, Eddy Cue and Robert Kondrk. Billboard.com conducted the discussion and some excerpts of Reznor‘s thoughts include:
On if his royalty checks have been growing due to the adoption of streaming:
“I’m not looking at the financials as much, but through [the lens] of a consumer. When Jimmy and I first sat down years ago, it was very clear that the future is streaming. And I bring to that the burden and legacy of having come from the system before that, where livelihood could be made selling physical products and life made sense, you knew who the enemies were and you knew how to get your music out… And in this state of disruption, what interests me most as an artist, and what has been great about working with Jimmy before Apple and within the Apple ecosystem, is trying to bring that sense of opportunity to the musician.
The last 10 years or so have felt depressing because avenues are shutting down. Little shrines to music lovers — record shops — are disappearing… And every time there’s a new innovation, the musician is the one that didn’t have a voice at the table about how it’s presented. I thought, if I could make a place where there could be more opportunities, and it comes with more fertile ground, and music is treated with a bit more with respect, that interests me. It’s not, ‘Oh, I hope I get on that taco commercial.'”
On YouTube:
“Personally, I find YouTube’s business to be very disingenuous. It is built on the backs of free, stolen content and that’s how they got that big. I think any free-tiered service is not fair. It’s making their numbers and getting them a big IPO and it is built on the back of my work and that of my peers. That’s how I feel about it. Strongly. We’re trying to build a platform that provides an alternative — where you can get paid and an artist can control where their [content] goes.”
On if we will see a ‘streaming-only’ future:
“It feels as though we’ve turned a corner in terms of the adoption of streaming. I think it’s inevitable that downloads will diminish, much like CDs. But I’ve started buying vinyl — probably out of nostalgia, but also there’s something about a physical thing that has meaning to me as an artist. I think coexistence can take place.”
For more from the chat, head to Billboard.com. Reznor himself has had a direct hand in an upcoming overhaul of Apple Music.
