You may know of Trent Reznor from the band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is NIN’s frontman, but he’s also a new Apple employee. When Apple purchased Beats, the company purchased Reznor’s talents too, since he was the CCO at Beats (Chief Creative Officer). But, what will Reznor do at Beats, and why is he so excited to be a part of this team?

It’s Around the Music

Reznor told Billboard Magazine that his role at Apple will have to do with streaming music services, though the exact things that he’s working on remain unclear. Instead of making the music or being behind the music, though, Reznor will be “around” the music. So, he’s going to be making some serious and major decisions for Apple. This will take time away from Reznor’s own music, but it might mean a new kind of streaming service for Apple.

Reznor told press that he’s not satisfied with the way that streaming music services are now, and that the streaming music world holds a lot more potential. Is he right? Spotify is a wildly popular streaming music service, but could it be even better? Could streaming be brought to a whole new and exciting level? That’s what Trent seems to think. Reznor seems to understand the current problem with purchasing music, too, and that’s more than can be said for a lot of other CCO’s.

The Music Dilemma

As Reznor rightly points out, the problem with music today is that people will sit through an ad to listen to a free song, but they aren’t going to pay for that song. Just like people will deal with the sporadic Spotify commercials just to avoid paying the $9 per month Spotify fee. When you break it down, consumers today aren’t about paying, they’re about saving. Plus, most consumers are used to commercials and announcements. What might have worked as a deterrent to get people to pay for a service years ago is no longer working.

If you have to listen to an ad, so what? That’s the mentality of most music listeners now, and it’s one that Reznor points out when he talk about a new streaming service. Apple has to create something unique that isn’t going to cost people a ton of money. The new Apple streaming music service can’t be the same as Spotify or any other option out there. It has to be unique.

More to Come

Apple has always been secretive about the products and services that the company is developing. So, it’s not really a huge surprise that Reznor won’t tell press exactly what his new role is. All we know is that he’s now part of the Apple team, and he will be heading up some creative role. But, I am glad to report that Reznor addressed the addition of the U2 album Apple forced on every iTunes user, and he agreed that it felt like an invasion of privacy - calling it an “oversight.”

There are some rumour circulating that Apple will be offering a streaming service that’s much less expensive than what any other company offers, but those details haven’t been released quite yet.