March 6, 2008 | Reznors NIN web-based music venture makes almost $1 million in three days
By Danny Mendez
Reznors experimental, web-only release of the new NIN album is so far a success, scoring the band over $750,000 in just under three days and this is without the help of a record label.
Today, Ars Technica noted the $300 Limited Edition package, of which only 2500 were assembled, is officially sold out. Official sales stats have not been released, but this means Reznor and his band have bagged $750,000 in addition to the revenue from the other packages.
Sunday at 6 PM, Nine Inch Nails front-man, Trent Reznor, released his bands new album, Ghosts I-IV, via an online-only release on the Nine Inch Nails site. The album is offered in a variety of packages, including a free downloadable pack with Ghosts I, a $5 download that offers all four volumes of Ghosts in lossless formats or 320kbps MP3, a $75 set freaturing a Blu-ray disc, and finally the Limited Edition pack featuring vinly LPs and other goodies.
Reznor has embraced new technologies and systems as opposed to fighting them like the RIAA has tried this decade. This is perhaps the RIAAs greatest fear: artists discovering that a computer, a server, a web-site, file-sharing, and some concerts makes the record label obsolete.
The new album has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, which basically gives NIN all commercial rights to their music but any kind of non-commercial use by anybody is legal. This means the album can be legally shared and released on file-sharing networks remixed or not and you can bet this has already happened. Why fight the inevitable?
Reznor holds to the belief that the Internet and file-sharing networks are a blessing to bands whether the members are a local hit or huge super stars, and as you can see above, he doesnt just talk the talk.
He personally released Ghosts I onto torrent sites, a bold move after finding himself disheartened for the lack of people that decided to pay when he released the album of a friend, Saul Williams, online and found that many opted for the free version instead of the higher-quality $5 pack.