Response to Trent Reznor on the NiggyTardust data.

The latest from NiN.com is this.
http://www.nin.com/index.html#4978432809979160079

I'm glad that Trent showed us some numbers, something I don't think Radiohead has done yet.

So here you go. Saul Williams' previous 2004 album sold 33,897 copies.
The internet release was downloaded 154,449 times.
28,322 were paid for. That is, $5.
$5 x 28,322 = $141,610.

Now assuming every payment was made through PayPal, and PayPal's current fee for accepting credit card payments (for a business) is:

$0.00 USD-$3,000.00 USD	3.4% + $0.30 USD
$3,000.01 USD-$10,000.00 USD	2.9% + $0.30 USD
$10,000.01 USD-$100,000.00 USD	2.7% + $0.30 USD
> $100,000.00 USD	2.4% + $0.30 USD

Phew. OK, I am going to assume that the NiggyTardust album sold $10k - $100k per month. So.... 2.7% of $141,610 is $3,823.47, PLUS $0.30 each sale, so $0.30 x 28,322 = $8496.60...
What the fuck, is this right? Am I messing up on the math? $12,320.07 went to PayPal (under the assumption that EVERYONE bought the record using PayPal)???

Wow.... I want to be PayPal....

OK, so...
After paying PayPal Niggy runs home with $129,289.93
Now, I am under the impression that Trent Reznor, having produced the album, paid some big dollars. How much? I have no idea! But let us assume... 50k?
And then there is the web hosting. I have absolutely no idea how much that cost you, and I am curious as to why you didn't put that information up on your blog post.

They are still going home with more money than I'll be making this year. And cooler jobs, I think.

So now let me get to the part where I wonder about Trent's blog post... he said that since Saul's 2004 album sold about 30k copies and the new one was downloaded 150k times, but only paid for by 28k people, that means only 18% decided to pay. OK.... true.
But then he goes on to say that since they didn't do much marketing, he assumes that the majority of the people downloading the album were previous NIN or Saul Williams fans.

Now Trent... maaaaybe that's true. Maybe. But you've got to remember, this is the Internet bro! I know that when that album came out, I was posting the news all over websites whose readers didn't give a shit about NiN (I wanna fuck you like an animal?), and much less about Saul Williams (who?). But... here's what those websites had in common:
The readers log on to see what's new today.
Free album? Whaaat?
That's what got them. Sure name recognition played a part, but what got most people was the idea of Choose Your Path payment option on an album. So they visited the site. And they said...... "Who the fuck is Saul Williams?"
Sorry. But that's what they said. Because they are computer folk. And they listen to disgusting shit like Dave Mathews etc. And they were not about to gamble their $5. So they downloaded for free, PROMISING themselves (yeah right) that if they liked the album, they would come back and pay the $5.

It's my personal opinion that somewhere around 80 - 90% of those people said, "What the fuck is this, is this really music?" because that album sure as hell was not Dave Mathews. That was a seriously good album. So, those taste testers chose Pepsi, and Coke made no money that day. Then the other people, the ones who actually still listen to the album? Yeah... they probably forgot to go back and pay their $5.

So, I is my belief that the people who DID pay the $5 came in a couple categories.

1. I got moneys, whatever. Here's $5. I don't even care about the music.
2. I have got to support something like this, no matter what!
3. I love Trent. Who is Saul? Errrh... here's $5. Trent.. call me!
4. I love Saul. Of course here is my $5.

So, Saul, Trent... why didn't this album sell more copies?
Why didn't you do more marketing than some obscure Internet posts?

It's my belief that you wanted to tell the fans. You were paying for bandwidth costs OUT OF POCKET. And you didn't want every American teenager on MySpace to come grab the album for free, smashing your bandwidth. Pretty good call.

I also think you wanted to see how far news would spread by itself.

Point is... I think this album was a success. If you and Saul aren't happy, I'll tell you what. I will produce my own album. Won't be good, but you won't pay a dime! Then I'll give you the album, and we'll make a website where we will offer it for $5 or Free. Then you post on you blog advertising my album. Oh, and you have to say I'm a really great guy or whatever. Let's see how many people pay for it. You can keep 90% of the profits. I'd be happy just to pay my rent this month.

P.S.: ~~~~Trent.... call me!