Jon Litwack

Nine Inch Nails offers new album sans DRM or cost.

// March 3rd, 2008 // Stuff

When Radiohead put out ‘In Rainbows’, I guess most of us looked at the situation as a combination of disenchantment with the major lables, coupled with the “thought” that most people are just going to download it anyway, so why not just capitalize on making themselves look more down to earth.

I for one, having worked in the “music biz”, have NO CLUE as to how things will turn out in regard to monetization. I guess ideally, it all comes down to who can drive the most fan affinity, generate ticket sales, sell merch, etc. Maybe CDs will become a relic like 8 Tracks, and ultimately the only real “hardware” market will become audiophiles who want to spend $200 on vinyl for those “rare tangible pressings”.
Realistically we’ll have to wait for major labels to shut down in order to see independents like Rezner and Yorke get their way. Until then, enjoy paying $20 for two pieces of plastic sandwiching aluminum foil.

On the note of DRM today, Trent and Thom aren’t the only ones shunning Digital Rights Management (at least in the mainstream spotlight), Random House recently announced their anti-DRM policy on their Audiobooks. That’s right kids! You won’t have to worry about the MPAA knocking your door down for all those Christopher Pike audiobooks you’ve illegally downloaded!

Oh yeah… the link to the album’s page is here: http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home
For those of you that would like to learn more about DRM and all of its loveliness, check out the EFF’s page about it here: http://w2.eff.org/IP/DRM/guide/

For those of you wondering if the album is any good, I’ll refer back to the words of Rob Gordon (From High Fidelity) and say “I haven’t quite absorbed that one yet”.
It’s a soundtrack album. Lots of ambient noise. Great for some… Not really my schtick.