Nine Inch Nails Offers Latest Album, Ghosts, As Free Download
Mar 3rd, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Music, General 
Nine Inch Nails is offering its latest CD, Ghosts I, as a free download from its site. The collection is a teaser to promote their Ghosts I-IV, a new collection of instrumental tracks.
The official download requires email registration at the site to get a download link. You can also download the collection officially via BitTorrent.
The download includes
- DRM-free MP3s, encoded with LAME at 320kbps
- A 40-page pdf book about the release
- A digital extras pack with wallpapers, icons, etc
The entire collection can be downloaded for $5, or you can order a $10 2 CD set and other deluxe and limited edition versions.
Here’s what NIN’s Trent Reznor has to say about the release:
This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.
The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.
We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.
The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.
More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.
– Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008
Reznor previously produced a CD by Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, which was also made available as a free download.
Update: NIN has sold out of the $300 super-deluxe editions already.
[…] Nine Inch Nails is offering its latest CD, Ghosts I, as a free download from its site. The collection is a teaser to promote their Ghosts I-IV, a new collection of instrumental tracks.The official download requires email registration at the site to get a download link. You can also download the collection officially via BitTorrent. […]
Sweet.
A wonderful album.. an album Trent Reznor has been wanting to make for a long time! All instrumentals, very complex and rich. Some daydreamy soundscapes, others brash and industrial, a lil funk, and lots of piano. The dynamics of Trent’s work and the layering of some songs is
amazing.
As a long-time NIN fan, this will probably move into my top 3 NIN albums ever.
Unfortunately their site suffered the Digg effect yesterday and even though I was using a DL manager, the server crashed and I lost my $5. Any attempts to re-download lets me know I’ve hit the download limit. Any emails to their support have not been returned.
Vudu – the whole release is on bittorrent legally.
I’m downloading it now – but it says it will be 15 hours!
Take a look at this other professional Creative Commons initiative http://thenyouwin.yooook.org/ đ
Um, Saul Williams released 4 CDs before Niggy Tardust, made up of full-length releases and EPs. So Trent Reznor specifically did NOT produce his debut CD.
Ken – thanks for the feedback; this has been updated.