Nine Inch Nails iPhone App

Sometimes it isn’t necessity that breeds invention, but boredom. In a blog article by Wired magazine, musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) explains how he came up with the idea to use a twitter iPhone application to upload and broadcast photo and video footage from his concert tours for avid fans while waiting impatiently to go on stage. It was then that Reznor realized fans were doing their own photo and video sharing via social media networks. He collaborated with Apple, Inc. to design a twitter-like application specifically for Nine Inch Nail fans. The free application has a tentative release date of April/May 2009.  Fans will be able to tweet to one another and share photos in the twitter-like feed.

According to Wired, “over the past year, NIN.com has quietly evolved into a series of interlocking services designed to deliver maximum benefit to the fans at minimal expense to the artist. To build it out, Reznor decided to use off-the-shelf resources — Blogger, Twitter, FeedBurner, Flickr, YouTube — rather than trying to duplicate what other people had already created.”

What are the issues at stake?

 The biggest issue that Reznor faces is his strive for freedom. According to Wired, “Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry. His embrace of “freemium” pricing, torrent distribution, fan remixes and social media seem to be paying off financially even as they have helped him forge deeper connections with the Nine Inch Nails faithful.” 

Since Reznor’s goal is to connect with fans through tools like social media, an application like Twitter is ideal for maintaining a strong fan base that feels connected to the artist and the music.  

What are the pros and cons of this campaign?            

The positive aspect of this application will be the freedom and ability to connect to Reznor’s fan base through the use of social media. A huge NIN demographic is the 18-49 year olds who use technology like the iPhone and Twitter to share content and talk to other fans. This application will make the process of finding and sharing NIN content easier and faster.

The negative aspect could be the loss of control over what is being said about the brand, but after reading Reznor’s interview in Wired I don’t think he worries too much about loss of control. On fan sites for artists the chance of negative comments are low.

References 

Rose, Frank. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznor’s Innovative Run” April 6, 2009 http://blog.wired.com 

Etherington, Darrell. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App to Resemble Specialized Twitter” April 9, 2009 http://theappleblog.com 

Spence, Nick. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Awaits Apple’s OK” April 11, 2009 www.pcworld.com 

Nine Inch Nails