Know what I won’t be spending my economic stimulus check on? The new Nine Inch Nails album the slip. Know why? Not because I don’t want to spend the money. It’s because I don’t have to spend the money! Nine Inch Nails is offering their new album for free. From the site:
as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.
Here is the download link for the slip. The download includes a PDF with artwork and credits. I don’t see a time limit for the download but the site says they are releasing the CD in stores in July so I would guess the downloads may stop then.
Know what else is cool? They are releasing the album under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what the site says to do with the download:
we encourage you to
remix it
share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc.Continues after Advertisement
This is similar to what Radiohead did back in October ’07 when they released their album as pay-what-you-want. (In Rainbows is great by the way. It really grows on you). What NIN are doing is a step beyond Radiohead with it being free and all. Also, they encourage you to share and remix the music.
I really hope more established bands start doing album releases like this. Obviously because I like free music from bands I like, but also because the music industry has been hurting and it needs to re-think how it markets itself. Prince had some interesting releases as well. For Musicology Prince gave away the CD with every concert ticket. For Planet Earth, the CD was initially released in the UK as a free covermount on the paper The Mail On Sunday.
We shall see how the NIN release is received.
What do you think about artists releasing their work like this?
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photo by nineinchnails
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Not 100% personal finance, but I’ll bite because I like music, not as much as I did when it was 100% free when Napster came out, but still…
I like what they’re doing, it’s a good step in a new direction. I’m sure they’ve got something on the backend making the $ somehow though as well, and it’s not “free” to them. They’re still turning a profit.
My guess is that they’re going to send you a link in your email with a few ads attached, to which they got a good chunk from advertising companies to post there realizing the popularity of NIN.
So yea, I like the idea – I don’t mind the advertisements, and it’s a step in a new direction for sure…
So I couldn’t resist but try it to find out how it worked, and I gotta take my foot out of my mouth now… No ads, no links, nothing. Straight to the point free music downloadable at their site when they send you a code via email. Nicely done NIN!
I couldn’t get a response in before you…I totally believe they are doing this 100% for free. That’s not to say it won’t benefit them financially later on. Free download means free publicity too. A band may actually make more on touring than the album anyway.
If you like NIN you may be interested in the album I just finished last month. It is also available free. Licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence. This licence lets you use this music for commercial products or make remixes or other derivative works, so long as you give credit to the original artists.
Politics Apocalypse is political and subversive post-industrial rock with an interesting mix of classical instruments, guitars, electronic beats, and a small dash of aussie hip-hop. You can download the whole 11 track album at no cost at our website.
http://www.politicsapocalypse.com
We are also doing a name your own price CD (starting at cost price).
It would be great if you reviewed my new album on your blog. I love to read feedback positive or critical.
Cliffe.
Thanks for the info Cliffe. If I get some free time I’ll check out your stuff. I’m always up for some good new music (used to play in a band many moons ago). I don’t think I’ll get to a review though on the site though.
Thanks for the comment!