Figures that it would be people like Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke that would lead the way:
Trent Reznor has been telling the whole world how happy he is to be free from his record label. Now the Nine Inch Nails mastermind has unveiled a post-label strategy that takes Radiohead's In Rainbows concept further by leveraging BitTorrent and releasing songs under a Creative Commons license that permits purchasers to remix the tracks.
The full version of the new Nine Inch Nails album, Ghosts I-IV, contains 36 songs split into four volumes. Reznor (and/or his representatives) uploaded the first volume into BitTorrent, where it can be downloaded free.The entire 36-song version can be purchased digitally (in the MP3 format) for a mere $5 from Amazon MP3 or the band's website, NIN.com. At this point, the site has slowed to a crawl due to the tremendous response to Sunday's release -- Reznor says they're adding more servers to cope with demand.
Taken as a whole, this is a remarkably extensive release that leverages BitTorrent distribution and word-of-mouth promotion in a way that would be impossible with most record labels. By embracing the best things about digital and physical releases, Nine Inch Nails has advanced the dialogue that Radiohead began with In Rainbows.
As with the Radiohead experiment, dedicated fans looking for something more substantial than a zip file full of music tracks can choose to spend more on a box-set version of the album -- or buy inexpensive CDs.If you want a physical version of the album, $10 gets you Ghosts I-IV on two CDs; $75 gets you a limited-edition package, pictured to the right (two CDs, a download code for the 36 songs in MP3 or lossless formats, a 16-page booklet in deluxe digipack, a 40-page PDF, a digital extras package, a data DVD with the multitrack files for remixing, and a Blu-Ray disc with 96 KHz/24-bit versions of songs and a slideshow that goes along with the music [updated]).
The days of major label dominance are over. It may not be entirely obvious yet, but everything about the music industry is changing. Everything. Digital distribution has made their entire business model obsolete.
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