Video: TRENT REZNOR Talks About Decision To Return To Major Label

NINE INCH NAILS mainman Trent Reznor spoke about his decision to rejoin forces with a major for the release of the upcoming EP from his new project HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS.

Reznor, who has been releasing music to fans directly on the Internet in recent years, will make the next CD from HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS available via Columbia in November.

Speaking to TALKING HEADS frontman David Byrne at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles last night (Sunday, October 14),Reznor described a situation in 2009, when he noticed RADIOHEAD had higher profile in the Czech Republic than NINE INCH NAILS did.

Reznor said: "We're playing in Prague, but I see flyers up for RADIOHEAD, who are playing the same place we're playing, six months from then. Then I walk into the record shop, and there isn't a section that says NINE INCH NAILS."

Reznor went on to explain that his personal inability to oversee worldwide marketing campaigns alone contributed to his decision to sign with Columbia, saying, "It was, one, to have a team of people who are better at that [marketing] than I am, worldwide... that felt like it was worth slicing the pie up monetarily. So far it's been pleasantly pleasant."

In May 2007, Reznor made a post on the official NINE INCH NAILS web site condemning Universal Music Group — the parent company of the band's record label, Interscope Records — for their pricing and distribution plans for NINE INCH NAILS' 2007 album "Year Zero". He called the company's retail pricing of "Year Zero" in Australia "absurd," concluding that "as a reward for being a 'true fan' you get ripped off." Reznor went on to say that as "the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more." Reznor's post, specifically his criticism of the recording industry at large, elicited considerable media attention. In September 2007, Reznor continued his attack on Universal Music Group at a concert in Australia, urging fans there to "steal" his music online instead of purchasing it legally. Reznor went on to encourage the crowd to "steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'."