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Yes, you heard that right! The man behind Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, has decided to give away the new NIN album for free. The album is called “The Slip” and feature 10 new tracks, two of which were released recently as free downloads. To get your copy of the album, simply go to theslip.nin.com and enter your email address. They will send you a download link and here’s the best part: you can choose from a variety of formats for your download. There’s the good old mp3 download, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and a high-resolution 96kHz/24-bit WAV version as well. That last one is a 1.2GB download and it’s only worth it if you have proper audio equipment to play it back on. I just went with mp3 - my hard drive is woefully short on storage space. Let me remind you that this is the new NIN album in its entirety, being given away for free by the people who made it. I’ll post a review after giving it a few listens.
Reznor had been talking about controlling the distribution of his music and giving people choice. Unfortunately, he was tied to a major record label contract and there wasn’t anything he could do to convince them to change. So, first he told his Australian fans to just steal his music from the internet. Then, he broke away from his record label. By the time he did this, however, Radiohead beat him to the punch and allowed fans to download their new album at any price - even free. However, there was only one option - 160kbps mp3. For most people, 160kbps is sufficient, especially when the rips are done properly. The album sounded very good when compared to earlier, more traditional, CD-based Radiohead albums. Audiophiles probably felt that 160kbps was inadequate.
If you were a fan, you knew that the album was coming on CD later. But many people didn’t know this, paid for the download, and were then pissed that Radiohead tricked them into getting the download when the CD was planned all along. The media and sites like Digg built-up Radiohead to be some sort of revolutionaries for bye-passing the record label and giving the music to the fans directly. The band never claimed this tag, but one felt that there was more that could be done with band-controlled digital distribution.
Reznor went a step further with the release of the instrumental collection, Ghosts I-IV, and offered a mind-boggling array of options. You could get the first nine tracks for free from the NIN site or even via torrents - Reznor uploaded the files himself. Then, to get the complete 36-track collection, you could pay $5 and get a digital download, $10 for the 2CD version which included the digital version as an immediate download, or the more fancy $75 and $300 packages, meant for hardcore fans. The response was overwhelming and took down the NIN website for a couple of days. The music itself is hit-or-miss. I like it as background music - the lack of lyrics can get mildly frustrating but it’s not bad. There are some good tracks here and Reznor was clearly trying new stuff with this record.
Most people paid for the music because they love NIN and/or to support the distribution method. After all, who doesn’t like to stick it to the man (RIAA)? Clearly, Trent’s approach was more well-rounded and he now has a legion of internet fanboys who absolutely love him. This also includes those who felt burned by Radiohead’s approach.
Personally, I know one of the biggest Radiohead fans on the planet so I knew the CD was coming. I still paid for the download to support the method, and I bought the 2CD version of Ghosts as well. The RIAA has long fucked over both artists and music fans and it’s high time that the big name bands reach out to their fans directly. Heck, they can also promote smaller bands. How? If Reznor likes a band, he can offer to sell their stuff through his setup - he did that for Saul Williams already. This guarantees that a large number of people will listen to newer bands. Play live shows to make money and give away studio recordings. Now if only someone can stick it to Ticketmaster….
(I know Pearl Jam tried already and failed so perhaps it will be a LOT harder to take down Ticketmaster)