So I just got back from visiting some college friends in Seattle. They are all in bands, so I been thinking about music marketing the entire weekend (which, as regular readers know, I focus on anyway because I view trends in music as a leader of trends in media and culture).

Which leads me to Trent Reznor.


Here are some amazing things Trent Reznor is doing:

1. licensing his music with a CC-BY-SA license (free distribution, free to remix)
2. trying to work on creating an interactive site for remixes of his CC-BY-SA licensed music
3. creating a real online community for fans of Nine Inch Nails (the name under which he releases his music), including an iPhone app that lets you find and interact with local fellow community members

And, of course, visit his web site.

This is where we are headed, in my opinion. Other musicians will follow, and then other independent media publishers will follow.

But Kid Mercury, How on Earth Does Anyone Make Money?

We've discussed this many times before, but basically there are a number of ways:

1. Merchandise sales -- not just t-shirts and posters, but endorsements of all kinds; this is the most exciting opportunity in my opinion, as it will allow media publishers to focus on developing deeper relationships with fans in order to get more revenue per customer, and will allow the publisher's brand (i.e. perceived image) to be shaped by what the publisher endorses and sells in his/her/their store
2, Touring -- see our previous post, "The Future of Touring"
3. P2P Commerce -- letting the community of fans sell to each other
4. Virtual items -- i.e. letting fans send each other meaningless digital gifts like they do on Facebook (dumb as it is people love that crap and I think if the psychology of the community can be done properly it can work across a wide variety of niches and make the community experience more enjoyable for all)
5. Investing in other publishers -- basically using their community to invest in launching other publishers, in exchange for a percentage of their aggregate revenue

We're getting closer to this reality. Next step is for Trent Reznor and Kanye West to join forces; Kanye will show Trent how to leverage his influence to create a brand (see our previous post on Kanye West), and Trent will bring the technology package to create a virtual network of fans that shares real experiences. It's the future of music!