Why Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) truly understands the value of Social Media

The latest news this week was that Nine Inch Nails will score David Fincher’s upcoming film,” The Social Network” – A movie about the founding of Facebook. As Trent Reznor (the man behind Nine Inch Nails) truly understands the value of Social Media and how to engage in it, he’s a perfect match.

A while ago he wrote a post in the official forum, which describes the three iCrossing Social Media principles (Understand, be useful, be live) pretty well:

“I found myself realizing that for me to have any concept of how to interact with the community and know what they might want / what they find appropriate, I need to immerse myself in that world and live it for a while.”

And further:

“What you’ve seen happen with the marketing and presentation of NIN over the last years is a direct result of living next to you, listening to you, consuming with you and interacting with you. Directly. There’s no handlers or PR people here, it’s me and my guys – that’s it.”

So what did he do after listening /understanding? He released two records (Ghosts I-IV and The Slip) under the Creative Common License and later also brought limited editions of those to the record store (as fans were requesting it). Social Media was used to increase the awareness and find new potential buyers.

Remixes of his songs were always a big part of the Nine Inch Nails project. That’s why he developed a vivid community where people could download the original multitracks of many of his songs, remix them and upload it to the official website. Social Media was also used to increase the interaction rate of fans and brand loyalty.

Last month he also started a new band: “How to destroy angels”. And again, he released the first EP under Creative Common license. This EP seems to be yet another kind of social media experiment, combining very different sounds and styles (within his genre) with a female voice. So he listens again and will use his fans feedback to define the sound on the first full length record of his new band. Social media as a feedback channel for product development.

But also for him as a public person being open and engaged in Social Media is not easy and solely beneficial. During the time of his post, he was annoyed of people massively spamming him. So he decided to leave parts of social media landscape.

I think these are really great examples of someone understanding his fans and finding ways to help them. We will see if the music industry will adapt his approach.

Do you know any other bands acting similar as Nine Inch Nails?