The March of the Pigs (or The Rise of the Artist)

Today, Radiohead released its new album, In Rainbows, in its digital form to consumers. Buyers were given the option to pay whatever they wanted to receive a 48Mb ZIP file containing ten 160kbps DRM-free MP3 songs (and yes, the "album" is pretty killer). But this is just the beginning of the inevitable Rise of the Artist...

Earlier this week, Trent Reznor posted on the Nine Inch Nails website that they're finally free of a record label (Interscope): "...as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label," wrote Reznor.

"It gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience," he added.

While we don't know for sure what NIN will be doing, it's largely expected that they'll be doing something similar to Radiohead. Rather than hiding from the digital music storm, they'll be running towards it.

Gizmodo puts it perfectly: "If two of the biggest acts in the industry can see the digital writing on the wall and totally embrace it — that the old way of doing business is broken — why can't the labels?"

Earlier this year a remix version of Year Zero was announced but with no release info, presumably it'l be the final release from NIN under contract with Interscope. And Reznor has been increasingly vocal about his frustrations with the handling of Year Zero.

Reznor told the Australian Herald Sun, "It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole."

"I will never be seen in a situation like this [with Interscope] again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this 'Let's wait three months' bulls---," added Reznor.

To add salt on the wound, it's now rumored that Oasis will be doing the same thing. And The Charlatans (big in the UK). And Jamiroquai.

Domino effect anyone?

See, that's what happens in a world of increasingly fragmented media. When the latest in music isn't discovered on the radio, but rather on MySpace. When labels discount the intelligence of their audience, and sue them instead. It's that whole Long Tail theory again (essentially the aggregation of niches), which empowers the individual and disregards the middle-man. What's more, artists are no longer constrained by the arduous timelines set by music labels. As soon as the songs are recorded, they can be heard by the masses. Turnaround time is immediate, and the artists can be as prolific as they choose.

The caveat of course is that all these bands have massive fanbases. Ones who's foundations were built using the methods of the big labels and mainstream media. They can eliminate the middle-man. But those with less of a fanbase still need to get heard. And once the digital novelty wears off, even the established artists will also need to be heard.

But whatever, this sort of model is far more enabling than the current model. Perhaps soon we can break out of this musical lull where the "hits" only see the light of day, and actually get back to music selling based on merits as opposed to marketing.

"Exciting times, indeed" concludes Reznor on his website.

Indeed. Time for those pigs to start marching...