Trent Reznor, better known as the founder and primary creative force behind the band Nine Inch Nails, has produced a solo album by Saul Williams and mixed by Alan Moulder. The album is called The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust and is available as a free download.
Of course, you might be thinking that this sounds like a familiar business plan, hot on the heels of Radiohead's "name your own price" scheme. Radiohead may have started a trend that many other big name artists are starting to follow, but rather than the quiet, mysterious, experimental approach that Radiohead took to their release, Trent Reznor and Saul Williams are full on and explicitly (albeit slightly metaphorically) explaining the motivations behind his cut ties with the big record labels:
"...Most people aren’t aware of the world of art and commerce where exploitation strips each artist down to ni**er. Each label, like apartheid, multiplies us by our divide and whips us ’til we conform to lesser figures. What falls between the cracks is a pile of records stacked to the heights of talents hidden from the sun...And the only way to choose is to jump ship from old truths and trust dolphins as we swim through changing ways."
I'm a little rusty on my Reznorese, but I'm pretty sure what they're trying to say is "I'm mad as heck [that when I'm an artist and go quadrouple-super-platinum I only get like $20 after studio fees], and I'm not going to take it anymore. And dolphins are cool."
I'm guessing on the dolphin part, but the rest is fairly clear. The big labels have been riding on the coattails of talented artists for some time now, and the artists discovering that people out there bought their albums to listen to the artists, not to line the pockets of an Interscope executive.