Trent Reznor opens up about his role at Apple, the Beats acquisition and more in new interview

BY Evan Selleck

Published 31 Oct 2014

image Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor has been credited with the Beats Music Chief Creative officer in the past, and he has opened up about his role at Apple, life after the Beats acquisition and more in a new interview.

The interview was published by Billboard, and goes over quite a few interesting details regarding the artist’s life, including turning 50, life in front of the band Nine Inch Nails and what the future holds, and a “top-secret Apple project.” Reznor says that Apple was uniquely interested in him designing some things for the company, but that, obviously, he cannot go into details just yet. He even admits that with the new role at Apple, it has forced him to make compromises when it comes to actually creating new music.

It’s related to that. Beats was bought by Apple, and they expressed direct interest in me designing some products with them. I can’t go into details, but I feel like I’m in a unique position where I could be of benefit to them. That does mean some compromises in terms of how much brain power goes toward music and creating. This is very creative work that’s not directly making music, but it’s around music.

Interestingly, Reznor also points to a project he’s focused on right now that actually does indeed have everything to do with music, including music delivery:

I’m fully in it right now, and it’s challenging, and it’s unfamiliar and it’s kind of everything I asked for — and the bad thing is it’s everything I asked for.

The idea of a project on music delivery, one that Reznor is currently working on, is interesting considering that U2’s frontman, Bono, seems to be working on something of this nature as well, as previously reported. Bono is reportedly working on a new music format, which could very well be tied to a brand new way of delivering that music to millions of listeners. This new format will supposedly incentivize people to start buying music again, especially digitally. Indeed, Apple’s own digital music sales have dropped quite a bit, just in 2014 alone.

Furthermore, the future of Beats Music seems to be an integral part of Apple’s new focus on the audiophiles and casual listeners out there, including everyone in between. It was initially rumored that Beats Music would be shut down, but reports quickly surfaced that suggested Apple was aiming to revamp the service, and even working with those in the music industry to figure out a way to drop the monthly subscription price of the service to $5 per month, down from the $10 per month it currently goes for.

The full interview can be read through the source link below.

[via Billboard]