Originally Posted by Trent Reznor

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. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it. ... I know people have it and I know it's on everybody's iPods, but the climate is such that people don't buy it because it's easier to steal it. It's tough not to resent people for doing it when you're the guy making the music, that would like to reap a benefit from that. On the other hand, you got record labels that are doing everything they can to piss people off and rip them off.

(He rants here for a while about how his CDs are being priced $10 more than other CDs, and is basically told that they know his CDs will sell, so price them higher, while pop music is generally lower to convince people to buy it.)

And I just said "That's the most insulting thing I've heard. I've garnered a core audience that you feel it's OK to rip off? Fuck you'." ... They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of shit that they pull off.

That [extra] money's not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have f---ed themselves out of a job essentially, that now take it out on ripping off the public. I've got a battle where I'm trying to put out quality material that matters and I've got fans that feel it's their right to steal it and I've got a company that's so bureaucratic and clumsy and ignorant and behind the times they don't know what to do, so they rip the people off.

...

I have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this 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" bullshit.