Reznor Follows Radiohead, Offers Free Album

An anonymous reader writes "Convinced the current music business infrastructure (requiring artists to rely on labels) is broken, Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor, released his band's new album, Ghosts I — IV (Ghosts Volumes One though Four), on Sunday at 6 PM via his official site, marking yet another business experiment for this artist in the changing music market."

Not Typical NIN, Give It A Listen!

[eldavojohn]

From the site where this is hosted [nin.com]:

This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as... something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we're able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed - from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we've ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

- Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008

For those of you that don't like the same sounding music on an album or the yelling vocals, I heavily recommend downloading this and listening to it for free. I emphasized the "wildly varied" as some of this music is very cool calm and collected easy listening with very orchestral sounding builds.

I'm glad to see an artist as respected as Reznor do this. It kind of makes sense though, as you see this music only took him 10 weeks to do and doesn't have any vocals--lowering the number of takes and the difficulty of quality lyrics.

With the digital age and the ability to produce easily and quickly accessible DRM free music, we may see the beginning of a whole lot more material coming from artists with either an ad-based revenue or charging for particular tracks that required more studio time and refinement.

To clarify

[brian0918]

To clarify, only the first 9 songs are available for free. The rest are still available a price well below what you could get anywhere legal.

Radiohead not the first

[Shawn is an Asshole]

Radiohead didn't come up with this idea. Harvey Danger did it back in 2005 and they probably aren't the first. Here's the Slashdot article:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/02/2056210 [slashdot.org]

Anyway, this NIN album is very good. If you're anxious for it and the NIN servers are still too slow, Amazon's MP3 service has it for $5. Amazon finally released a Linux version of the downloader, btw.

Re:Bad Summary - only part is free

[Shawn is an Asshole]

The summary's a bit off - I haven't read this article, but something I read earlier today said that there are several releases.
If I remember correctly:
1. The first part of the album (not the whole thing) is available as a free download.
2. The whole thing is available for download for $5.
3. A CD set is available (10-15ish?).

The 2CD set is $10, but when you check out it shows the shipping price: $6.99. That's a bit high...

4. A deluxe, signed, and limited CD set is available ($75?).

The signed one is $300.

http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options [nin.com].

NIN Official torrent

[Bored MPA]

He actually did torrent the free as in beer sampler (9 tracks). Please don't slashdot the site if you just want to check the sampler out.

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4059158/Nine_Inch_Nails_-_Ghosts_I_(2008) [thepiratebay.org]

The full 36 tracks are 5$. And are licensed under creativecommons for non-commercial copy/share/perform.

Trent Reznor and Saul Williams

[Bipedal Shark]

Trent Reznor already has some experience with this sort of delivery method. Saul Williams's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! [niggytardust.com] was a semi-collaboration with Reznor.

Re:To clarify

[Danathar]

Actually, I think the entire set is under the creative commons license. The first nine are free off of the site, but technically it's legal to get the whole set from somewhere else if you want (please somebody check this as I'm not sure as well)

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[pipatron]

You could check out Machinae Supremacy, Swedish band. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinae_supremacy [wikipedia.org]

Lots of free songs on their website, which is of course under reconstruction now when I checked it...

mod parent up

[Bored MPA]

they tested this out last year with a free/5$ setup

interesting that they moved to sample/5$

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[xaxa]

I second the Machinae Supremacy recommendation.

If you want something a little different, try some post-industrial music -- e.g. Combichrist, Funker Vogt, ... in fact, find Industrial Legacy vol 1 on the Pirate Bay. I bought 12 CDs because I found that mix, I think all except one were on a small record label.

At the moment, I can buy CDs from Americans on Amazon Marketplace for about £6, the price of two drinks in a bar in London, and they arrive in about two weeks. In the mean time, I'll listen to the download.

Re:To clarify

[Southpaw018]

Pirate Bay is an official distribution channel. (Yes, really [thepiratebay.org].)

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[xaxa]

They do both, scroll down the wiki page a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinae_supremacy#Webography [wikipedia.org]

http://www.archive.org/details/mtk144 [archive.org] has one release, the others seem to be there too.

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[cyxxon]

Uhm, I always find that there are really a lot of interesting metal bands that are NOT on any major label... try Nuclear Blast, or Century Media. Non-RIAA, and a wide range of metal bands from all styles.

Re:To clarify

[\\]

The music is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike [wikipedia.org] license. Doesn't that mean it is free to distribute for non commercial purposes by anyone as long as credit is properly attributed?

Re:Reciprocity

[ichthyoboy]

You mean like Jamendo [jamendo.com]?

Direct Link

[dlim]

It's a little late, but here's the official site [nin.com]. I clicked the link to the article, and most of my browser window was an ad. I had to scroll down to even scan (not read) TFA. Lame.

Piss off

[Anonymous Coward]

He's been clean for years.

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[pipatron]

Yes, I think most of their fans disliked their signing to Spinefarm, but that doesn't change that all or most of the songs before 2006 was distributed through their website, in mp3 and ogg formats.

I think they said that their reason for signing with Spinefarm was that it was their only way to be able to get a gig at the big music festivals in Sweden, apparently they don't take on bands that are not on a label, even if they have a large fanbase.

can't download

[lophophore]

I am a bit of a NIN fan...

I went to the site, paid $16.99 for an immediate download of all 36 tracks and the promise of the 2-disc CD set mailed to me in April. The download site is totally swamped. I tried to download the music, my downloads would just die before I even got a few percent of the archive. I tried again, then again, and now it hates me: "download limit exceeded." Hopefully, they'll get their shit together, unblock my access, and I'll be able to get the music I paid for.

The moral of this story is: "You might want to wait a couple days before trying to download."

Re:Radiohead not the first

[op12]

Also, this form of distribution isn't a first for Trent either...he released an album he produced for Saul Williams back in November [symbii.com] of last year, with the option to get it free as 192kbps MP3s, or for $5 in lossless formats or those same MP3s.

Re:Not Typical NIN, Give It A Listen!

[JDWTopGuy]

Actually Reznor did the soundtrack for Quake (a great work IMO), but for whatever reason was not involved with the sequels. (Wikipedia says "The soundtrack for Quake II was mainly provided by Sonic Mayhem, with some additional tracks by Bill Brown.") IIRC he was approached for either Doom 3 or the movie of the same, but I'm too lazy to check.

Re:Not Typical NIN, Give It A Listen!

[JimNTonik]

While this practice hasn't been common, it has been happening for a while now. Harvey Danger released an album maybe 3-4 years ago on this model, and I'd really like to see them getting more credit for it. They're not as popular as Radiohead or NiN, and I think that should earn them some extra credit. The more we talk about smaller bands doing this, the better.

Not only that

[commodoresloat]

But this isn't even the first time Trent Reznor did this; he worked with Saul Williams on the Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust [niggytardust.com], and they gave it away for free in 192 kbps format with a $5 download for 320 or FLAC. It's a great record too, download it yourself and see! They sold over 150,000 downloads at $5 a pop and then Trent took down the freebie link and posted to his blog whining that it wasn't enough, but they recently put it back up. The Ghosts announcement is good news alongside this fact, because it means that he still believes in alternative distribution channels (and free music) despite his earlier whining.

Re:can't download

[ZenHarbinger]

Everyone is hitting the servers, here's an update from the NIN fan news site [theninhotline.net].

If you've used up your three downloads, contact [e-mail], although you'll likely get this response: Dear Customer,

Due to overwhelming response, you probably have experienced technical difficulties purchasing or downloading your copy of Ghosts I-IV. We are currently working diligently to address these issues, and will do everything in our power in ensure that your download will be successfully completed. If you have hit your download limit, we will be resetting the download attempts as we resolve the technical issues within the next 24 hours. We do apologize, and thank you for your interest and response to our offerings to the fans of nine inch nails.

the real problem with the music industry

[mrscorpio]

The problem with the music industry is cost and profit margin expectation. Unlike professional sports, in music there are "amateurs" that put out a product every bit as good or better than that of the major labels. There will always be a handful of performers that transcend the rest from each generation and become rich, and that won't change, but for everybody else...record your album for $10,000 (or less) instead of $100,000 (or more), stay in cheaper hotels when you tour (or maybe a bus is cheaper, I don't know). Make sure your first contract is good, which might mean you don't get quite the signing bonus or promotional weight you might expect, but carries less risk for financial ruin if you don't make it.

Money and rewarding experiences are still out there for musicians to obtain. But the days of easy money by signing a deal and selling 2 million CD's are over. You're going to have to work harder, operate more efficiently, and be better, with a more innovative business model. In other words, the music industry has caught up with the rest of the business world.

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[PMBjornerud]

Ok:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3493606/VA_-_Industrial_Legacy_Vol.1.2006.MP3.Electro.Industrial.Collect [thepiratebay.org]

Or, if you have already hooked .torrent files start your client automatically, allow me to present 1-click piracy:
http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/3493606/VA_-_Industrial_Legacy_Vol.1.2006.MP3.Electro.Industrial.Collect.3493606.TPB.torrent [thepiratebay.org]

Re:Alternative music.. alternative methods

[Jon_E]

Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) is doing this with his concerts here:
http://www.playedlastnight.com/ [playedlastnight.com]
would be nice to see more artists follow suit

Re:Groan.

[De Lemming]

The main page [nin.com] states:

Update: The response to this album has been overwhelming, causing our website to slow to a crawl. We THOUGHT we were ready, but...
We've been adding more servers to accommodate the unexpected demand and we expect to be running smoothly in the next few hours. In the meantime, if you've had any problems with downloads from the Ghosts site, don't worry - you'll be able to use your download link again when the site is more stable. Thanks everyone for making this such an immediate success.

posted by Trent Reznor at 5:47 PM pst, from hong kong.

I'll explain the future. It's easy.

[PMBjornerud]

For a start, they're not going to get tons of free publicity. Plenty of musicians already release their music for free, without expecting any payment. They don't get articles in slashdot. If lots of other musicians "catch on" they'll find the whole "band releases album on net" story is long past stale, no-one cares, and hundreds, never mind millions, aren't going to be made.

If enough artists release for free, services like http://www.pandora.com/ [pandora.com] and http://www.last.fm/ [www.last.fm] will be built to make use of it.

Then you don't even have go looking to find those new artists. You'll just assemble a musical profile, and whenever some artist anywhere in the world release his music - it will get tagged and matched with your peers and slowly work its way into your personal radio channel.

That is what the music industry is fearing, and what will indeed kill them. Very soon, artists will just plug their masterpieces into the net, and after a while their music will have played for thousands of people interested in just that kind of music. Why should you sell your future profits for marketing when you'll hit your key audience automagically, at zero cost?

Just make great music and drop it on the web. If an artist is good enough to become famous doing that, all that is needed is to think of a way to convert fame into money. But that's a lot easier than making great music.

This will be a network effect. Just wait for critical mass and enjoy the ride.

Readme.txt from the torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I (2008)

This torrent is an official upload from Nine Inch Nails.

We're very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label, we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It's licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

We've also made a 40 page PDF book to accompany the album. If you'd like to download it for free, visit http://ghosts.nin.com/main/pdf [nin.com]

Ghosts I is the first part of the 36 track collection Ghosts I-IV. Undoubtedly you'll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if you're interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5. You can also order it on CD, or as a deluxe package with multitrack audio files, high definition audio on Blu-ray disc, and a large hard-bound book.

We genuinely appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the new music. Thanks for listening.

http://ghosts.nin.com/ [nin.com]

That indicates the whole thing is CC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ [creativecommons.org]), and that they acknowledge you can download it without paying, yet encourage you to throw them some cash.

Note that's what Radiohead did (minus the CC AFAIK).... "Here's the music, pay as you will"

Re:Reciprocity

[jsdcnet]

check out amiestreet.com. bands upload their music, it starts out free, but as it gains popularity, it starts to cost money, until it hits the cap of US$0.98 per track. they just partnered with some well known indie labels (4ad, beggars banquet) so you can get a lot of the old cocteau twins and gary numan catalog legally for free (or very cheap) :) artists get 70% of the revenue once each song has sold $5.

Re:can't download

[babbling]

From http://nin.com/ [nin.com] :

Update: The response to this album has been overwhelming, causing our
website to slow to a crawl. We THOUGHT we were ready, but...
We've been adding more servers to accommodate the unexpected demand and we expect to be running smoothly in the next few hours. In the meantime, if you've had any problems with downloads from the Ghosts site, don't worry - you'll be able to use your download link again when the site is more stable. Thanks everyone for making this such an
immediate success.

Re:Real significance: Free as in Freedom

[Guillaume Castel]

Don't forget The WIRED CD [creativecommons.org] compilation that was bundled with the november 2004 issue of Wired Magazine, and featured somewhat high profile artists such as Beastie Boys, Danger Mouse, Chuck D, etc... Three tracks were released under the Noncommercial Sampling Plus Creative Commons license, the rest under the Sampling Plus license. For me, that was the real start of that trend, although it took quite some time to catch on.