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Editorials

NEW NINE INCH NAILS RECORD AVAILABLE — RIGHT NOW!!

 Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 2:12pm by

NIN - ghostsNine Inch Nails only-man Trent Reznor has gone and backed up his long-held claim that once he was free from the clutches of the evil record labels he would release new music the moment it was finished. Two weeks ago he posted on his blog a cryptic message titled simply “2 weeks” with no other text. Interwebs speculation ran rampant — would Trent announce a tour, the beginning of a new project, or would he actually release a new album? Well, we found out one day early — yesterday at 4:47pm Trent posted another blog entry titled “Ghosts I – IV” with only the following text:

The new Nine Inch Nails record is available RIGHT NOW.

Well holy shit! Apparently word spread so quickly that a mere hour later Trent posted an update saying that demand was so high the servers had been overloaded and they were working to fix the problem. We haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but we hear Ghosts I – IV consists of 4 sets of 9 instrumental tracks each. The first is available for free download via the link above. The rest can be purchased via a version of the pay-as-you-wish pricing model Radiohead used, and Trent did with his Saul Williams collabo; you can purchase the rest for a minimum of $5 for downloads, or whatever you want to offer, up to $300 for a physical autographed copy.

Let’s hand it to Trent for a) sticking by his word, and b) being the man. How do you think this experimental business model will do? Will fans buy the deluxe versions? Can an artist be successful without the typical run-up of PR, videos, etc?

-VN

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  • Brett

    I downloaded the first chapter and was bored. I see why Trent called it “music for daydreaming” since your mind will wander as soon as you put it on.

    NIN is still my favorite band though. Trent just needs to get out of this “I want to have a band” phase.

  • ozzyzak

    To be honest with you, I’ve never liked NIN a whole lot, but I actually really enjoyed the first chapter. I’ll be buying the double disc.

    It is music for day dreaming and for some reason that’s what I really liked about it. It seemed to take me somewhere, and that’s what I look for in my music.

  • attackmole

    Haven’t listened to it, but I love the concept and pricing. I’d buy a hell of a lot more albums if double discs cost ten bucks.

    Also, in remarkable coincidence with this, the local paper around here published a report that wal-mart is going to try to force down the price of CD’s to something around a 10 dollar average. This is good news. As long as they don’t cut CD stock, this would definitly lead me to buying a lot more albums.

  • Gibbo

    I am highly impressed by it, but although Year Zero Part II is apparently planned, it’s kind of ruined the alternate reality game thing he had going with Year Zero by sticking an album in the middle with no connection to it.

    Though it’s a stunning album, pure NIN.

  • http://www.myspace.com/porkspam Porkpsam

    I think the $10 copy will sell well enough. The limited edition $300 will sell out too since there are enough hard core fans out there willing to pay that much just for his autograph. I think the $70 one would be the one i’d personally want the mot. I could do without the vinyl and autograph. The dvd with visuals to go with the music sounds pretty cool and it’d be nice to eat some mushrooms and watch with the music, but i’m no rich man sso it’ll be the ten dollar cd for me.

    Gibbo this doesn’t interrupt the flow for year zero at all… he says he took a ten day break and this is what he came up with. I mean shit, he’s a man who enjoys music as a hobby. you know, so he may well have been off the clock when he was doing this thing. And uhm, yeah the alternate reality thing is make believe.. I doubt he’s been living in a compound somewhere really pretending that the government poisoned the water to dumb us down…errrr… well actually yeah they did.. read up on flouride.. first used by the nazi’s on jews in the concentration camps to steralize them and also to dumb and calm them into submission… but that’s besides the point.. it’s not orwells 1984 yet..

  • http://www.bastardradio.com Bastard No. 1

    Brilliant album. Some of my favorite NIN tracks are the instrumentals on The Fragile – so this is a treat for me. Fans of Trent should love this as this is really very much an NIN record.

  • Drake

    I just sent my ex a text message to tell her. She’s a Trent fanatic. Wants to have his babies and everything… in fact, that’s why we broke up. I think I hate Trent…

  • http://www.sithomeandrot.com manny

    the model is a winner for established acts. The word of mouth bands/groups etc. who have a built in fan base have is usally considerable and eliminates most of the need for marketing and the preeminence of the blog media spreading stories to people who man not be in the super fan loop but may be interested and the old marketing way looks silly.
    Add to that the relatively low costs of serving content (if you are configured correctly) and a fixed cost per unit structure that is essentially non-existent (which can’t be said for CD’s/Cassettes/vinyl etc) and it’s basically a permit to print cash.

  • NuMallCore Pwns Yo Mama

    I downloaded the freebie package last night and gave a listen today. Not the most intense NIN work, but it’s definitely great music.

    I’m planning on getting the $10 package when the servers calm down a bit.

  • http://www.hibernum.net Hibernum

    I’m really curious to see if this turns out to be an economic success.