Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor, released his band’s new album Sunday night via his official site, marking yet another business experiment for this artist in the changing music market.

Last year, Reznor announced his band would free itself from record labels, and it looks like he’s following through with his promise. He released the new album, Ghosts I - IV (Ghosts Volumes One though Four), Sunday at 6 PM, says the LA Times’ Extended Play blog.

The musician’s experiment relies on the theory that customers would be willing to pay for the music if there’s extra value included, so he released the album in various packages. The first 9 tracks are available for free in a high-quality, DRM-free MP3 format, and a 40 page PDF book and a digital extras pack with wallpapers, icons, and more come included.

__________________
GCB Myspace

Cool I wonder how its going to turn out for him??

__________________
You've Got Questions. We've Got Ambergirl.
www.myspace.com/pajamasakapj

Hopefully this catches on. Might as well let the record industry die.

how did Radiohead do? I remember it being big news when the cd first came out, but haven't heard since

__________________

A Day in the Life of a Musician's Wife
My Myspace

On the surface this is a much more concise marketing and merchandising plan than any label currently has in place. Total control of a bait-and-switch step-up-sales scheme rivaled only by FACT-O-BAKE. The real beauty is the image-to-reality theme is "we're not selling out!",,,,, "we're cleaning your clock!" LTS and I should be envyious and take a close look at this business model,,, it's the wave of the future.

The first week they "sold" $750k so I think it is doing pretty well for them.

__________________
GCB Myspace

And that's 100% instead of the 8.5-18% of the gross in the "major label" world.

Given the quality of reznor's recent work, I'm not surprised the album is free. But the only way I'm getting one of his albums is if he pays me.

__________________
Censor this, bitch.

I think it is a great business model for musicians, and I hope it becomes a viable one in the future. I'm glad another big name has jumped aboard, once major acts prove that this can be done, and start to tilt the market in that direction, it will be easier for smaller artists to jump aboard. It puts all of the work in the band's hands, which is where it should be anyway.

Who said the members of Fugazi were not visionaries?!

Couldn't agree more!

__________________

A Day in the Life of a Musician's Wife
My Myspace