Free Music Friday: NIN - "The Slip"

[Tim Williamson]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup' target='_blank'>http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;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. the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits. for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.&quot;</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1210918013.usr209.jpg" /><br /><br />Nine Inch Nails (NIN) has released their latest album for free download from their web site, with the official CD release coming up in July.&nbsp; This release comes in a variety of digital formats (MP3, FLAC, M4A, and WAVE) and is <strong>DRM-free </strong>(whoo hoo!).&nbsp; Our source (Steve The Yaz) wonders if this could start a trend of promoting album releases in the future. This trend would definitely be great for consumers, but I'm not sure how this would benefit the band.&nbsp; Now that I've downloaded the album, I don't know how inclined I'd be to go out and purchase the CD. Would you pay for a CD if you could get the album for free?&nbsp; For a band that makes their money from CD sales, I don't know if offering your album for free download is a good thing, but for a band that makes their money from concerts, then this could be a really great way of promoting the band. So if you're into industrial rock (or even if it's not really your thing) head over the <a target="_blank" href="http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup">NIN's site</a> and check out their latest free album!

[firthh]

I just came to this site because of the competition and a first post I see is about my all time favourite artist Trent. I've listened to the new album for a few days and its not as good as Year Zero but still it's still very good. Trent made 1.5 million for Ghost, and he only sold the album for $5. He also sells more expensive Albums with special features and photos, which some people are interested in, so he doesn't need to make his money only from concerts. That man is a genius I tell you!

[rlobrecht]

I too downloaded it. It's pretty good, but I'm more of a Pretty Hate Machine kind of NIN fan than their latest stuff.

I will probably buy the CD, even though I already have it on my iPod. The reason is I know that Trent still needs to make money at this music thing. If I want NIN to make more albums, they need to be compensated.

My only hope is that enough people think the same way I do.

[McNubbins1]

I grabbed it too, this is a powerful thing because I was never into NIN before so buying their albums was kind of out, but now that I got an album for free I found out that I like them quite a bit. I'm sure a lot of people will be like me so their album sales overall will go up.

I even blogged about it last week but I'm not into shameless promotion so I won't link the post. :p

[Tim Williamson]

I will probably buy the CD, even though I already have it on my iPod. The reason is I know that Trent still needs to make money at this music thing. If I want NIN to make more albums, they need to be compensated.

Wouldn't it be great if all fans had this mindset, and all artists had Trent's mindset? ;)

The only reason I mentioned that I wouldn't buy NIN's CD is really because I'm not a huge NIN fan to begin with, but for other bands that I'm really interested in, I'd be sure to buy their album to support them.

One thing I'm not familiar with, is NIN under a record contract? When Trent sells the CD, is a majority of the profit going to him or the record company? It'd be interesting to see how the profits are split.

[Dyvim]

Trent definitely has been experimenting with new distribution models. Just a couple months ago he did Ghosts I-IV, which had 9 tracks available as a free download or 36 tracks (available in lossless DRM-free formats) for a $5 download. (That's a price and product I really like. I'd spend a bunch of money on music right now if I could get $5 lossless DRM-free digital album downloads from my other fave bands. Who needs physical disks? Well, some do but I don't, not really.) He also sold out of 2500 limited edition copies at $300 each- that's $750,000 in revenue right there, so I bet the free downloads didn't hurt him much. In fact, I bet it spurred at least some people into making purchases from his back catalog.

For me, the free "The Slip" download convinced me to part with $5 for the Ghosts I-IV download. I still need to pick up a copy of YearZero, but will probably do that some time this year.

And the downloads are even available in Apple Lossless, my format of choice since I'm an iTunes\iPod guy!

[txa1265]

I downloaded it, and put it on my iPod. It really isn't my sort of thing, but I thought my kids would love it - and I told them "if you want it for your iPod, you will have to pay for it on the site". I love his pricing model and want to support it however I can ... I hope this catches on!

[Tim Williamson]

Album art is embedded in the ID3 tags too. :)

[FiredCylinder]

I downloaded it, and will definitely buy it when it comes out on disc, though I probably won't open it (Do people actually use cd players anymore?).

[ionen]

FREE downloadable music albums are a great way of promoting a band and making money at the same time for them. I think the CD from NIN will definitely be bought by the fans aka people that really appreciate their music. The others will just get it free

[Tim Williamson]

The others will just get it free

Like me... :o

But hey, at least it gives me (and others) a taste of something new musically. I listened to this NIN album at the gym today, and it seems to work well as workout music for me.

[Jason Dunn]

I grabbed it too, this is a powerful thing because I was never into NIN before so buying their albums was kind of out, but now that I got an album for free I found out that I like them quite a bit.

Yup, that's a powerful thing - I don't own a NIN album myself, so I'm looking forward to checking this out and if I like it, I might buy some of their older albums...

[Phillip Dyson]

I've also downloaded this album. My cousin has been a fan of NIN for years. He actually told me about this download after I forwarded him a NIN versus Radiohead digital age comparison.

Its an okay album, though I will admit that its got me curious about some of their others. Which I suppose is the point.

Personally I like the Radiohead "In Rainbows" model. Get the high quality CD and name you're own price. But if you want the special edition, then we'll give you an exclusive on Disc 2, an LP and art.

[Jason Dunn]

Personally I like the Radiohead "In Rainbows" model. Get the high quality CD and name you're own price. But if you want the special edition, then we'll give you an exclusive on Disc 2, an LP and art.

I think that's an interesting model, but I loathed their method of distribution - that form I had to fill out, where they even wanted my mobile phone number, was just too much. I gave up and left - I'm not going to give them my information in exchange for something "free" if it's open to abuse down the road. The NIN distribution was perfect - only an email address.