All Eyes Should be on Trent Reznor
Nine Inch Nails just release their new album The Slip as a %100 free download.
I might go so far as to say it is a %110 free download, given the extremely open set of formats it which it is available:
- High-quality MP3s (87 mb) – encoded with LAME at V0, fully tagged.
- FLAC lossless (259 mb) – CD quality
- FLAC high definition 24/96 (942 mb) – better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHZ audio
- M4A apple lossless (263 mb) – CD quality – will play in itunes.
- High definition WAVE 24/96 (1.5 gb) – better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHz audio
To add to the modernity of this release, all the the bigger packages are distributed via torrents. Therefore, they only pay to transfer a tiny file from their servers. That’s hella-smart.
There is also the option to order the super-deluxe, collectors CD/DVD and vinyl editions. Now THAT is value.
Trent Reznor is the One-Man-Show (in the studio, at least) behind NIN and has consistently driven the crest of the wave for the music industry. They have released their last several albums as free downloads, and for the Year Zero publicity, placed easter eggs URLs around the Internet, each with clues about the album. Fans were encouraged to compile the whole story in the NIN wiki.
They have also made some of their singles available as Garageband projects and full 24/96 Pro-tools sessions for fans to remix. Being a pro-audio geek, that is insanely cool. Check out the remix of “Only” that I built with Pro Tools.
What about video you ask? What about UGC? What about mobile? How about the new fan content gallery, the iPhone game, and 400GB of HD concert footage to play with.
Perhaps they could use an online Mashup Tool for that?
did you see this: http://soundcheck.freedomblogging.com/2009/02/20/want-josh-freese-to-join-your-band-got-75000/4962/