As first reported last October, Trent Reznor has been developing a secret project with high-end headphone makers Beats By Dre. Revealing little, and teasing only that it’s “not what you are expecting,” describing secretive project as “challenging and fascinating… I’d like to tell you about the things we’ve dreamed up… I just can’t. Not yet…”
It seems that now the Nine Inch Nails/How To Destroy Angels main man can finally reveal his secret, with Pitchfork pointing out that the lastest issue of The New Yorker gets the scoop on Reznor and Dr Dre’s secret project in a new feature interview.
Reznor revealed to the influential magazine that he’s been helping design a new music streaming service with Beats By Dre, with the current working title of Daisy, set for a launch early next year.
Describing Daisy, Reznor says the service “uses mathematics to offer suggestions to the listener… [but also] would present choices based partly on suggestions made by connoisseurs, making it a platform in which the machine and the human would collide more intimately.”
The latest addition to the crowded streaming service market, which currently generates approx. $1 billion in music revenue, seeks to claim an edge on major competition like Deezer, Rdio, Mog, and market leader Spotify, by catering to listener’s tastes with customised music ‘journeys’ – as Reznor puts it.“[It’s] like having your own guy when you go into the record store, who knows what you like but can also point you down some paths you wouldn’t necessarily have encountered.”
Comparing Daisy to Spotify, Reznor tells The New Yorker: “‘Here’s sixteen million licensed pieces of music,’ they’ve said, but you’re not stumbling into anything. What’s missing is a service that adds a layer of intelligent curation.”
“That first wave of music presentation which felt magical, the one where the songs are chosen by algorithms that know who you listened to… has begun to feel synthetic,” said Reznor.
Daisy on the other hand, is “like having your own guy when you go into the record store, who knows what you like but can also point you down some paths you wouldn’t necessarily have encountered.”
Having already found major success in the music industry, as well as major success in film with his Oscar-winning film scores for David Fincher, as well as dipping his toe into the world of videogames; the move into the technological realm of the streaming service is boom is a smart one.”
Which has all kept Reznor away from the outfit that first brought him to fame, and although he technically retired NIN in 2009 with a string of farewell shows, in the same interview with The New Yorker, the enigmatic and unpredictable frontman has also confirmed what he’s previously heavily teased – that there will be new Nine Inch Nails material.
Fans will have to be patient though, with a greatest hits compilation due in 2014 through Interscope Records, which will include two new songs, with a new Nine Inch Nails record to follow after.
He’s certainly not resting on his laurels though, also working on his latest musical outfit, How To Destroy Angels. Featuring Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig, and frequent collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, who have just released their new Omen EP, and prepping for a full-length in 2013.
While Reznor has also confirmed he’s appearing on the forthcoming Queens Of The Stone Age album working with ringleader Josh Homme. The as-yet untitled record already earmarked as the most highly anticipated release of 2013 along with news that the album will feature the return of Dave Grohl to the drumstool, as well as – unbelievably – estranged QOTSA bassist Nick Oliveri, who’ll be contributing vocals.
