NIN remixes site does it right

Recently launched by Trent Reznor, Remix.nin.com is the best template I’ve seen of a fan-focused and fan-driven music experience. The music is available for download as original multitrack audio source files for people to download and remix at will. Thousands of versions have been produced by amateur musicians. As with any large collection of music, some tracks are better than others.

What the site excels at is allowing you to find, listen to, and subscribe to tracks that you actually like. The site is all Flash and has a lot of bells and whistles. To find tracks, you can score and sort remixes by 10 different mood scales (recognizable vs. non-recognizable, humorous vs. serious, ethereal vs. cacophonous, etc.). The playlists are all dynamic (Highest Rated Today, Most Popular of all time, Newest, etc.) and are driven by the fan base. The bonus is that all the dynamic playlists are syndicated via RSS or (even better) via Podcasts that automatically download to iTunes or your iPod. You can find and consume new music however and wherever you want.

Even if artists don’t “open source” their music to fans, music retailers and aggregators could take a cue from this site in terms of the flexibility with which users can discover and consume music. The music industry (and most retail-oriented businesses) still try to sell music via traditional merchandising (iTunes is no exception). But as the trend of “long tail” music consumption continues and web interfaces evolve, consumers will win even as the music industry’s oligopoly wanes.

December 8, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

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