Ian Rogers, for those who are unaware, is the CEO of Topspin and former Vice President of Yahoo Music.  Ian has thanked Trent Reznor for his contributions to the new model of music distribution in the 21st century.  As has been reported in this blog, Reznor - via his band NIN - has been releasing content in various forms both online and in hard copy form for years now.  Recently he has stepped his game up with multiple free releases.

Ian only posted a couple of paragraphs, so I’ll just post his comments:

Thanks Trent Reznor for blazing the trail.

Everyone is talking about his latest free download and his previous digital foray, but don’t forget his work with Saul Williams (statistical transparency included) and the marketing of his last record for Universal, which was by far the craziest marketing endeavor in the history of recorded music (if you follow one link in this post, follow that one). As Bob Lefsetz pointed out yesterday, it’s not about a press release, it’s about connecting with your fans and giving them something to believe in. And Trent has the attention to detail to see it all the way through. I’ve never met the guy but he seems driven.

What he’s doing doesn’t just take balls, it takes awareness and intelligence. Congrats, man. Keep it comin’.

So there you have it.  If you want to get in on the comment section, there was a good dialog going recently.   Thanks to Ian and FISTFULAYEN for a great post.