The drama surrounding the Nine Inch Nails (admittedly kinda cool-looking) iPhone application update may have ended. Trent Reznor announced via Twitter (@trent_reznor) minutes ago that Apple has approved the app, presumably because developers removed the song "The Downward Spiral," whose lyrics offended the surprisingly prudish folks at Apple.
But that wasn't before Reznor could call out Apple for its apparent hypocrisy, as he did last week:
And while we’re at it, I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and “clean” versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency – because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any “indecent” material for sale – but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film “Scarface” completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?
You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says FUCK or CUNT? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about fucking hot asian teens THROUGHYOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone!
Good stuff. The app should now be live and available for download at the Apple store.
UPDATE: The application is unchanged, according to Reznor. His rage wins!