Practice What You Preach: New NIN Album on BitTorrent
Posted by James | Filed under Music, Play, Web
It’s not like we doubted him, but Trent Reznor really meant it when he said that he hates the way the music industry operates and that he encourages sharing of his music on the Internet.
Nine Inch Nails have put up the first volume of their album ‘Ghosts’ on torrent sites, under a creative commons license. If you want to the whole package of the multi-volume album (36 tracks; ~ 2 hours!) though, you can go over to NIN’s official site and download it for $5. You can also order a 2xCD box set for a mere $10, "deluxe limited edition package" for $70, and you can get an "ultra-deluxe limited edition package" for $300.
Let me just stop here for a moment and say, if there’s one album I’m gonna buy this year (I usually go to concerts and buy t-shirts as I feel the band profits more directly from this), it’s going to be this one (just ordered the $10 package). Finally, you get really great value for money, and you get a fantastic number of options which cater to every pocket. I’m sure that fans will realise this and get the option they can afford, be it free, or the ultra-deluxe version.
Here’s what Trent has to say about BitTorrent:
Now that we’re no longer constrained by a record label, we’ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Tags: creative commons license, ghosts, music industry, music on the internet, nine inch nails, torrent sites, trent reznor
Trent Ponders Music’s Downward Spiral
Posted by James | Filed under Geek, Music, Play
To be perfectly honest, if you asked me where to find a thoughtful commentary on DMCA and musician’s digital intellectual property rights, the last place that would spring to mind would be Trent Reznor’s blog at nin.com.
However, that’s exactly what you’ll find, right now, if you head over there. Trent describes an ongoing project he’s had with re-mixing communities on the Internet, where he released the master recording files on the band’s website in an experiment to see what could come of it.
The results have been very pleasing to Trent, and he found what independent artists have known for years now: if you’re hard up for a sequel album, release your recording masters to talented amateur DJ’s, and bam, you’ve got a follow up album with a unique but familiar sound.
He liked it so much that he wanted create an officially sanctioned community around the remixing of NIN music, but ran into a fair amount of opposition from his record label. You may have heard of these guys: Universal.
They’re currently involved in lawsuits against Google and News Corp alleging that they’ve built businesses around exploiting the safe harbor provision of the DMCA, and that by setting up a user-generated content community for NIN, they’d be culpable for that same type of action.
That doesn’t man they don’t think it’s a great idea, though. They encouraged Reznor to move ahead with the project, but under the NIN brand, and ensured that should any DMCA allegations be brought against Universal, they would disavow all knowledge of the topic, and say that the band itself is culpable for the community violations.
Understandably, Reznor is a bit hesitant to launch it under his own name, and while he doesn’t specifically ask for legal advice, reading between the lines of his post, it seems that he might be open to a clever scheme that would prevent the pants from being sued off him.
Tags: copyright, dmca, legal, Music, nin, Privacy, trent reznor
Saul Williams shows Big Music how to release an album
Posted by James | Filed under Future, Geek, Play
Journalists and music fans the world over fawned over Radiohead for their bold release strategy for In Rainbows. After breaking with the majors, Trent Reznor and his parter-in-crime Saul Williams are taking that strategy and stepping it up to the next level of awesome. Saul’s new Trent-produced album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust is now available two ways: Free or $5.
For zilch, you get the whole album in DRM-free 192kbps MP3 encoded with LAME 3.97 “and love,” plus the digital booklet (take that, Radiohead). For $5, you get the digital booklet and a choice between 320kbps MP3 or FLAC lossless, meaning even audiophiles can feel good about purchasing a digital copy.
While he kind of dodged the question in the famed interview he revealed he was a former OiNK member, this feels like a pointer toward where the release of the next NIN album is heading. I’d still prefer a physical CD, personally, but this kind of digital release I can get behind—the price and the format are right. The rest of the industry would do well to pay close attention to how this turns out—or not, and simply follow suit.
Download here: NiggyTardust
Tags: downloads, drm, fair use, free, Music, nin, nine inch nails, saul williams, trent reznor
Welcome to Jimmahdigital.com, personal blog of James Simm, Wigan/Manchester-based .Net developer.
