“Next May, Trent Reznor turns 50. ‘It’s with some sense of dread,’ he says dryly,” Joe Levy reports for Billboard. “During his time on the road, Apple finalized its Beats acquisition for an estimated $3 billion. Reznor was chief creative officer of the Beats Music streaming service, and when he returned home to Los Angeles, Apple was interested in tapping his creative energy”
“‘That’s flattering, as a life-long Apple consumer and fan and advocate,’ says Reznor, who studied computer engineering during his three semesters in college and has long wrestled with the difficulties of music in the digital age,” Levy reports. “‘I am on the side of streaming music, and I think the right streaming service could solve everybody’s problems,’ says Reznor… ‘Ownership is waning. Everybody is comfortable with the cloud — your documents, who knows where they are? They are there when you need them. That idea that I’ve got my records on the shelf doesn’t feel as important even to me as it used to. I just think we haven’t quite hit the right formula yet.'”
You’re working with Apple. Is this an evolution of your Beats role?
Reznor: It’s related to that. Beats was bought by Apple, and they expressed direct interest in me designing some products with them. I can’t go into details, but I feel like I’m in a unique position where I could be of benefit to them. That does mean some compromises in terms of how much brain power goes toward music and creating. This is very creative work that’s not directly making music, but it’s around music.
Is it about music delivery?
Reznor: It’s in that world. It’s exciting to me, and I think it could have a big enough impact that it’s worth the effort. I’m fully in it right now, and it’s challenging, and it’s unfamiliar and it’s kind of everything I asked for — and the bad thing is it’s everything I asked for.
Much more, including Rezonr’s thoughts on U2’s iTunes giveaway, in the full article here.