Saul Williams/Trent Reznor vs. Radiohead vs. The Music Industry

So everyone knows about Radiohead's new album "In Rainbows" and how they gave their fans the opportunity to either pay for it (whatever fee they felt was appropriate) or download it for free. Well, it was just released the old fashioned way this past Tuesday for the regular ricockulous price CD's are these days. Point being, another artist did the same thing Radiohead did, however, since he wasn't as big as Radiohead, he didn't attract as much as attention as he should have. That artist is Saul Williams.

Good thing Saul had Trent Reznor in his corner cause if he didn't, the sad thing is no one would probably be paying much attention to his new record and what he is trying to do to the music industry. I, myself, think Mr. Reznor and Saul are actually trying to change the way the music industry runs itself for the better. Radiohead? Eh....for some reason I have mixed feelings about them.

Some general facts about Saul's Williams new record, "Saul Williams Presents: The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust:"

To date, the album has sold 28,322 copies of 154,449 people who downloaded the record. So, technically, only 18% of those downloading the album chose to pay for it. Compare this to Saul's last label-released album which only sold 33,000 copies. Radiohead, still hasn't given anyone this type of information either.

Not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen. I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. Is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening. But... Saul's music is in more people's iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He'll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.

-Trent Reznor