Experimenting with a non-CD world
I love articles like this ars technica article about Trent Reznor / Nine Inch Nails testing out different strategies for engaging fans online.
I think the thing that just crystallized for me is that it is obvious why Trent wants to engage his fans. He has fans. The record industry has no such fans and therefore feels free to punish the people who pay their salaries. At NECX each of our paychecks came in an envelope stamped, “brought to you by our customers” and my favorite bit of retail training I ever got was at Software ETC and went something like, “The customer may not always be right but they’re always the customer.”
Seems like the people who sell us music need to remember (or learn for the first time) both of those points or they will quickly find themselves without the pesky burden of customers.