Plenty of musicians have been releasing digital music downloads for free or for a small fee for years. But over the past year we've seen several high profile acts including Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails try to establish a more direct relationship with their fans. With no middleman, the bands may very well be making more money even though they're charging less for their music.
We'd be surprised if many people to spend $75 o $300 on the deluxe or ultra-deluxe editions (which come with a DVD, Blu-Ray disc, and other goodies like an autograph). But $5 will get you all the songs in DRM-free MP3 format.
Right now the official web site excruciatingly slow. We've had our downloads time out on us a number of times. But as with any new release album, you can already find pretty much every track for free using your favorite BitTorrent tracker. We hope Nine Inch Nails deals with its server issues soon, because it kind of defeats the purpose of this experiment if people just go ahead and download the music
[via Techmeme]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-03-2008 @ 10:38AM
Todd said...
You are looking at the future of music distribution. Direct relationship, one to one, me and the artist. Plus sliding scale marketing.
What's missing? All the hundreds of greedy do nothings who artificially insert themselves between me and the artist, extracting their pound of flesh at each stop along the way.
I predict that in less than five years this will be the only method of music distribution. Charles Darwin would be proud.
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3-03-2008 @ 10:47AM
Guille said...
According to the FAQ the whole thing is released under a Creative Commons license. So downloading it via BitTorrent is not only legal, but in my opinion encouraged, since the success of the experiment depends not only on how many downloads they sell, but also on the how much exposure the music gets and how much of that exposure is translated into revenue from shows and other merchandise. Granting permission through a CC license to freely redistribute and remix the music is a good way of increasing that exposure.
And if you really want to pay for the music you can always get it from AmazonMP3, or go back to the site later and pay the $5 without getting the download.
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3-03-2008 @ 11:26AM
rndmnme said...
@Todd:
Darwin? Try Milton Friedman.
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3-03-2008 @ 11:29AM
Ben said...
Actually, it's 1/4 free. ;) Though, you underestimate the fanbase of NIN. Personally, I would pay for the $300 edition had I the money. I'm glad the money is going to the artist rather than the recording industry.
I already downloaded the MP3s earlier as the site was down, but I'm certainly going to be purchasing the MP3s at the very least.
Radiohead's album wasn't too great, neither was the album by Saul Williams (produced by Reznor). At least neither was in my taste. So far, this album is great. Well worth the money. The first actual music purchase of my life, to be honest.
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3-03-2008 @ 11:34AM
izzy said...
http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-I-IV/dp/B00158SHD8/ref=pd_ts_th_1?pf_rd_p=369090201&pf_rd_s=center-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=163856011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1ZM13E4G91RBM1N5HDB0
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3-03-2008 @ 2:22PM
gAt0 said...
"But $5 will get you all the songs in DRM-free MP3 format."
For 5 bucks you'll get FLAC version -besides the MP3 and AAC ones, all of them-, that is lossless. That is if you buy the album using the official webpage ( http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options ).
If you order through Amazon you'll only get the 256kbps MP3 version, instead of the 320kbps one.
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3-03-2008 @ 2:23PM
izzy said...
1/4 of the music is free not 1/3 and you can download the whole album from amazon's mp3 store for only $5 too.
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3-03-2008 @ 2:25PM
koan said...
Don't be surprised: I've preordered the 75$ pack :)
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3-03-2008 @ 2:25PM
RaP said...
well I gave Amazon $5 for it (couldn't get the NiN site to work) I figure even in the worst case scenario if I don't like much of the album I'm encouraging the shift away from the current model.
Personally I saw RadioHead's move as more of a publicity stunt than an actual jab at the industry. On the other hand, Reznor has a history of butting heads with record labels.
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3-03-2008 @ 9:15PM
Chad said...
NIN being my second favourite band after Tool, I will be more than happy to give Trent my money.
It's good to see 'The Downward Spiral' of record labels continue with another artist taking their business into their own hands.
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3-04-2008 @ 8:03AM
Chris said...
Good on them, nice to seem someone taking a step forward. They've got the pricing spot on, I'd be happy paying that for an album (if I listened to NIN).
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3-04-2008 @ 12:40PM
Pete said...
I cant download their songs.... because of the server load yesterday, the download link expired... and I can't get what I paid for! :(.
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3-04-2008 @ 12:44PM
John said...
I bought mine yesterday and had to wait till today. If your link isnt working, email them. I'm sure they will get you your music.
In fact, I downloaded mine this morning at >1000kbps (gotta love the work internet speed)
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