Nine Inch Nails Uploads New Free Album on Torrent Sites

[dazza1011]

not my particular cup of tea but owt for nowt

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

Nine Inch Nails has just released the first volume of their new album “Ghosts” on BitTorrent sites as a free download. The band encourages its fans to share the album with friends, post it on websites and play it on podcasts

“Ghosts” is released under a non-commercial Creative Commons license and can be shared freely, something their fans weren’t allowed to do when the band was held back by a record label.

In the release notes the band writes: “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.”

This sounds is music to our ears, in more ways than one. For now, only the first volume has been uploaded onto BitTorrent sites, but the entire collection is available for download on the official website for only $5.

“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”. They further write in the release notes “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.”

Trent Reznor, the frontman of Nine Inch Nails has always been a supporter of sharing music via BitTorrent, even when it’s copyrighted. He isn’t frightened of talking about file-sharing. Back in May 2007 he admitted to sharing himself: “I steal music too, I’m not gonna say I don’t” he said. Later that year, when OiNK was pulled offline he admitted that he was a member there ,and said , : “If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now.”

The new Nine Inch Nails album including artwork is available for download on the official site, as well as on The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent sites.

[krish]

Have just downloaded it ... not via torrent, but the official direct download:
http://store.nin.com/sdl/nin_ghosts_I_mp3.zip (82.5 MB)
- it is supposed to be a one-time download link, so right-clicking and saving might not work unless you register for the link

EDIT ... am acquiring the whole lot (Vols I-IV) via torrent

[dibdab]

Thanks for posting this.

I'm always late to find this things, but there one of my favourite bands at the moment.

[alanrob]

Originally Posted by krish

EDIT ... am acquiring the whole lot (Vols I-IV) via torrent

Why not just pay the $5 for the whole thing and thus support the band and prove to the record industry that online sales of cheap DRM free content can work?

$5 on it's way to Trent from my Paypal account

[sh18]

Thanks for this, had no idea Trent was looking to release online content so soon! downloading the first volume, if its good then ill gladly be giving $10 for the 2 disc set

[krish]

Originally Posted by alanrob

Why not just pay the $5 for the whole thing and thus support the band and prove to the record industry that online sales of cheap DRM free content can work?

$5 on it's way to Trent from my Paypal account

I'm going to order either the $10 2-CD set or the $75 deluxe set (will be liable for customs)
- which will also allow immediate download access to the whole thing

At the end of the day I like to hold an album in my hand

[Martian Phil]

Originally Posted by krish

I'm going to order either the $10 2-CD set or the $75 deluxe set (will be liable for customs)
- which will also allow immediate download access to the whole thing

At the end of the day I like to hold an album in my hand

Me too, I just ordered the 2 CD set and have it DL. Will give it a listen tonight.

As soon as more bands get out of contract, this will be the way forward.

[systemsdead]

nice spot just grabbed the whole lot from newsgroups,didnt no this was to be released so soon.

[alanrob]

Originally Posted by krish

I'm going to order either the $10 2-CD set or the $75 deluxe set (will be liable for customs)
- which will also allow immediate download access to the whole thing

At the end of the day I like to hold an album in my hand

Since I no longer have any Hi-Fi kit at home and only ever listen to music either while browsing the internet or while bus'in it to work there is no point in me getting a "hard" copy of any album now
I can count on one hand the number of CD's I've bought in the last 3 years.

Listened now to 20 of the 36 tracks and it's okay as musical wallpaper. Don't think it will be a constant listen like The Fragile is, but there are some nice tunes in there. I really can't see it being an album you could sit down and listen to without having something else to do while it's playing though.

[accyuklad]

nice one

[signs]

it seems NIN made $half a million in the first two days from the "free" download.

they now have no record label and all the cash goes to them

is the "record label" dead ?

[unique]

if it wasn't for the major labels seeking out and promoting new acts they wouldn't get to the level of being able to sell so many copies and give albums away "free" like prince, radiohead and NIN and make so much money out of it

the main issue artists tend to have is staff changing over the years from nuturing artists and being involved in creativity and allowing artists to grow, to replacing those people with accountants who are only interested in making money. not all artists who leave major labels have success in "going indie", and some of them even returned back to major labels after realising the grass wasn't any greener on the other side. sometimes 1% of a lot is still more than 100% of not a lot. expensive box set releases like radiohead and NIN are fine for one offs but they can't expect many fans to continue to shell out large sums on a regular basis

[krish]

From the official NIN channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/ninofficial) ...

Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts Film Festival - Introduction


About This Video

To expand the idea of the "Ghosts" project, we're inviting anyone and everyone to create visuals to accompany the album's music. In a few months, we'll be gathering the entries we feel are particularly exceptional and highlighting them. There are no rules to this - be as creative as you like. Create a music video, or a short film, or something completely abstract. Use only one track from the album, or use multiple tracks. Only one caveat: Incorporating copyrighted materials (clips from movies, music by other artists, etc) into your video might limit our ability to feature it in the future.

To submit your video, join the Ghosts group at http://www.youtube.com/group/ninghosts and add your video to the group. Good luck, and enjoy

Added: March 12, 2008

[Shoka]

This is starting to become a bit of a trend, have ordered the 2 CD set, and will be starting the download shortly.

Are we going to see every artist releasing music like this in future?

[epicdream]

An absolute bargain for $5!!

I have only just got into NIN after hearing so much of Trent's work in films. Great stuff!!!