TRENT REZNOR Says NINE INCH NAILS Is 'A Totally Free Agent'

October 8, 2007

NINE INCH NAILS mainman Trent Reznor has posted the following message on the band's official web site:

"I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now NINE INCH NAILS is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.

"Exciting times, indeed."

Trent Reznor told fans at a concert in Sydney, Australia on September 16, 2007 to illegally download the band's music rather than pay high prices for CDs. In video footage (available for viewing below) taken at the show and circulated widely online, Reznor said, "Last time I was here, I was doing a lot of complaining about the ridiculous prices of CDs down here...now my record label all around the world hates me, because I yelled at them, I called them out for being greedy fucking assholes. I didn't get a chance to check, has the price come down at all? I see a no, a no, a no... Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or another these motherfuckers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that that's not right."

Reznor also addressed fans in China, where NINE INCH NAILS albums are not legally available. He said, "As for the special situation in China...If you can find and buy our legal CDs, I express my thanks for your support. If you cannot find it, I think that downloading from the Internet is a more acceptable option than buying pirated CDs."

NINE INCH NAILS completed a world tour in support of its latest album, "Year Zero", on September 18 in Honolulu.

Reznor told Hawaii's Star Bulletin that he is dismantling the current lineup of the band now that the tour is over, saying, "I see other ways I can present the material in concert, more challenging, something new."

Watch Trent Reznor's "Steal My Music" speech on September 16, 2007 in Sydney, Australia:

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