News NIN releases free album

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/06/nin-launches-free-album/1

Trent Reznor has released another album for DRM-free digital download, but this time it's completely free for the whole thing - as a "thank you" to his fans.

 

Downloaded.

 

got it earlier today. its good, though I've only started listening to NIN in the past week.

 

its certainly going to do him good from a PR perspective - and the cynic in me says thats probably all this is. Would be nice to think that he is just playing around trying to get the distribution model right before he tries another full scale paid for release.
Regardless of intent, this can only help bring the music industry up to date as the idea gets spread to a wider audience.

 

can someone explain to me....if the album is being released free how does the band make money? The only way I can see it happening is by people going on to buy earlier albums or paying for exclusive material (which in this situation i can't really see much of that happening)

 

Generally speaking, the main source of income to bands and artists is ticket sales to their concerts.

 

Pulled it yesterday morning. Good stuff. IMO, two really good tracks that stand out. Besides, can't beat the price!

 

and merchandise of course

 

Depends on the artists too. Indie artists generally make all their money from merch and concerts. CD sales are basically a write-off, if they're on a small label. If they're releasing and distributing it themselves, that's another story. NIN is a well-established project, with a lot of fans/listeners. Mr. Reznor knows how to drive a business at this point, and he's doing it in strides.

 

Trent has said before these last 2 albums that CD prices are way too high. He has even told fans at shows to steal the album instead, because even he would not pay that much. Give the music away so more people come to the concerts. It is truly all about the music for him.

 

How the record industry works:
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/

 

NIN are now on my white list of cool bands.

 

Cool, i'll give it a listen. I'd always been aware of NIN, but it was only With Teeth that i really liked. I downloaded the previous free album but haven't listened to it much.

 

I have never heard NIN music before, but I think I will download it tonight.

 

You missed out the noncommercial bit, meaning that you can also not make any money form the end product of your sampling/remixing/whatever of these tracks.

 

who else is on the list?

 

Hrm, better than ghosts, imho (I didn't like that very much, but this I like).

 

He's got the right idea. I bought ghosts and really liked it. I don't like this one as much but It is still good. The fact he released it as .wav files is really cool too.

 

Trent is no fool, he doesn't need to make money but by realseing this for free, he will make money form the media coverage, incresed ticket/ merchandise sales, maybe a few extra back catalouge sales. but there will also no doubt be a super limited edition $500 release to follow and he knows full well that he has a large fan base that will go and buy the cd even though it's avalible for free because they will buy anything and everything NIN.

Also you have to think how much money he's saved on not having 1000,000 copies of this cd pressed, not advertising anywhere expect the NIN website etc etc. especially as a good proportion of the profits of cd sales goes to the shops and distributers not to the artist or record lables!