Idolator: Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails To Give Away 200,000 CDs Of "The Slip"... For Money

Anthony Miccio — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EDT

The Slip, Nine Inch Nails' digital album that only cost an e-mail address, will now be available for purchase as a limited-edition Digipak with a DVD and a big neato booklet full of shiny pictures. Dude, Trent, you know the cool thing to do would be to just give all of this away. That would show your fans on the free music forefront that you truly stand for freedom, and provide a positive example for them when they discover that no one wants to pay them for what they do either. You'll also be able to hear this ProTools epic on vinyl, the amount of copies of which will only be limited by those who think this rather digital recording is best heard in a pure analog state. And the MP3s? Free forever, baby! The future is now!

The appearance of a free MP3 album in the physical marketplace has Coolfer getting a little snippy at folks who would declare the CD dead.

Proving the CD is just more pointless than ever, Nine Inch Nails frontman will release The Slip in the dead format via RED Distribution. The title will arrive to no fanfare on July 22.

This all makes perfect sense. The CD is dead. Has been for years. The old business model is dead. Has been for years. There are no record stores left. Haven't been for years. The price of recorded music will drop to zero. It has to. Or so I read.

To be fair, TechCrunch acknowledged the potential for "limited edition physical copies of music," which is exactly what form The Slip is proposed to take. This release isn't really a sign of Reznor backing off, just giving his most hardcore fans something new to cuddle.

NIN's 'The Slip' Hitting Retail July 22 [Billboard]
Reznor To Release Album In Dead Format [Coolfer]

Nine Inch Nails Offer A Free Taste Of Their Summer Line-Up

Anthony Miccio — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:30:00 EDT

This week in free Nine Inch Nails shit: Trent is offering a free EP of tracks from bands on his upcoming "Lights In The Sky" summer tour: A Place To Bury Strangers, Crystal Castles, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and Deerhunter, as well as the Ninnies themselves. It may not be as awesome as another free album (see, Trent, you give us everything and we only want more, more, more! It's just like one of your lyrics), but it's totally free and might inspire fans of the headliner to show up early and recognize at least one song by each of the openers. Not that Trent's live act won't blow them all off the stage. [NIN/YouTube]

An Avalanche Of A-List Rock Debuts, Topped By The Freakin' Offspring

Al Shipley — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here's "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al "GovernmentNames" Shipley examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he observes a few shake-ups on the normally staid Modern Rock and Active Rock charts.

Since I began writing this column late last year, there's been a relative dearth of big-event releases on the rock radio landscape. Early-'07 albums released by Linkin Park and the Foo Fighters have continually dominated the airwaves, and even now the Modern Rock chart is, as Idolator's Chris Molanphy memorably termed it, "Fooless, but not Linkinless." Meanwhile, decidedly second-tier bands like Seether and Finger Eleven have been topping the chart whenever Dave Grohl and Chester Bennington weren't playing musical chairs with the No. 1 spot. So the last month, which has featured an onslaught of chart debuts by some of alt-rock's biggest names, has been exciting to watch, even if I dislike most of the songs. Those debuts, and the significance thereof, as detailed by Billboard last week:

The Offspring earns a career-best debut on the Modern Rock chart as "Hammerhead" opens at No. 5, logging the highest entry point for any title since Linkin Park's "What I've Done" debuted at No. 1 on the April 21, 2007, chart. This marks the fourth consecutive week that the Modern Rock chart has hosted a top 25 debut, following Coldplay's "Violet Hill," Nine Inch Nails' "Discipline" and Weezer's "Pork and Beans." It is the longest streak of top 25 debuts since a five-week stretch of lofty debuts in late summer 1999.

Not only are these all significant debuts from big artists, they're all lead singles from new albums dropping this summer—or in the case of Nine Inch Nails, an album already out online but due in stores soon. And, more significantly, each of the songs was given a big, official online unveiling, the immediacy of which no doubt contributed to the tracks being added to playlists even more quickly than what the artists' name recognition would've otherwise guaranteed. Weezer streamed "Pork & Beans" on the band's official Web site, and more than half a million people downloaded "Violet Hill" the first day Coldplay made the song available for free on their site (at least 44,000 iTunes customers bought it for 99 cents anyway). "Discipline" was, of course, just one of several online insta-releases that Trent Reznor has orchestrated in the past few months, including the song's aforementioned parent album The Slip. And Sony trumpeted the online release of "Hammerhead" with such fanfare that, for a confused moment, I thought that it was a major label-sanctioned free download of an entire album, which surely would've made Reznor grind his teeth a bit.

Rock radio playlists are infamously some of the most sluggish in the biz, and sometimes it can take even the biggest hits time to crawl to the top with a new single. So this crush of big debuts, along with the Raconteurs' "Salute Your Salution," which debuted just outside the top 25 a few weeks earlier, may be ushering in a new era of quicker Modern Rock chart impact, aided in no small part by this here Internet. Established bands are not only getting new singles to their hardcore fans faster, radio stations are picking up on the songs as soon as they hit the blogosphere; in the past potential hits have often wafted around online for weeks before the label pushes programmers for an "add" when the song is officially serviced to radio. Songs becoming inescapable on the radio within hours of an online leak are old news on urban radio, while hip-hop DJs have long since adapted to getting new hits via e-mail.

The only one of these songs that I really enjoy is also the one with the most personally interesting chart progress. "Discipline" is a little more groove-oriented and vocally restrained than the average NIN hit, and it's also pretty easily my favorite single the band's released since the '90s. But it's also the first song the band has pushed to radio after parting ways with Interscope, so we'll soon see if Trent Reznor's lack of major-label support will affect radio's embrace his work; over his last two albums, he's racked up four Modern Rock No. 1s. The last single NIN released on Interscope, "Capital G," was not obviously radio-friendly and didn't seem to get much support from the label—but it still became one of the most-played Modern Rock hits of 2007. So it won't shock me if "Discipline," which ascended into the top 10 in its third week of release, continues to rise.

I'm not ready to talk shit about "Violet Hill" yet, if for no other reason than that I simply haven't gotten over the shock that Coldplay has released a song that doesn't sound like "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound." And Weezer, a band whose fanatical following has been completely mystifying me for 14 years now, is generally good for at least one single I can stand per album, but "Pork & Beans" ain't it. I haven't bothered to listen to the other leaked songs from the band's new album not so much because of the negative buzz as the fact that they haven't charted yet, and you pretty much literally have to pay me to listen to Weezer voluntarily.

But by far the worst of these new debuts is the one that's the biggest—and the most surprising. Like the other debutantes (save Coldplay), the Offspring rose to prominence, and peaked in popularity, way back in the mid-'90s. They started off annoying and just got worse from there, alternating hilariously blatant crossover attempts with monotonous punk-pop dirges. Their latest isn't a debacle on the scale of "Original Prankster," but their most ridiculously goofy hits arguably promise more entertainment value than the band's blander, more somber track. And "Hammerhead" falls decidedly into the latter category.

It's gonna be a long summer if this lot is rock radio's Big Four for the next few months.

"The Slip": The New Nine Inch Nails Album That's "One Hundred Percent Free" (With An E-Mail Address)

Maura Johnston — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:00:00 EDT

Over the weekend, a new Nine Inch Nails song emerged, and that would seem to have been the warmup for this morning's wee-hour release of the slip, a.k.a. Halo 27; the 10-track, 43-minute album is free to all takers as long as you give the NIN site's robots an e-mail address. "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years—this one's on me," Reznor said in a parenthetical aside on his blog. Someone buy that man a protein shake! Details of the release after the jump.

• The album's available in MP3, FLAC, Apple lossless, and WAV format.
• The FLAC, Apple lossless, and WAV versions of the album are being distributed via BitTorrent because of the huge file sizes, while the MP3 version is a plain old download.
• Downloading the MP3 version was pretty easy—no server crashes or endless "Please wait..." messages.
• The album's protected by a Creative Commons license that allows remixers to remix, bloggers to blog, or people who troll arena bathrooms to leave it on USB drives in stalls.
• CD and vinyl versions of the album will be out in July, with "details to come." Is it too much to hope for a 3-inch CD box set that's free with a street address? Probably.
• The first person to comment on Reznor's blog post announcing the album did, in fact, say "FIRST." Ah, Internet.

the slip [dl.nin.com]

Trent Reznor Will Only Bring The Best New Music On Tour With Him

Maura Johnston — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:55:00 EDT

Opening for this summer's Nine Inch Nails tour, which kicks off at the Pemberton Festival before fanning out across the country: Crystal Castles, Deerhunter, A Place To Bury Strangers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and White Williams. Average Pitchfork score of the five openers' albums: 7.14—but it goes up to 8.3 if you toss out Tom Ewing's pan of the Does It Offend You, Yeah? album. Tour dates and openers after the jump.

25 jul 08 Pemberton, BC Pemberton Festival
26 jul 08 Seattle, WA Key Arena Crystal Castles
28 jul 08 Edmonton, ALB Rexall Place Crystal Castles
29 jul 08 Calgary, ALB Pengrowth Saddledome Crystal Castles
31 jul 08 Winnipeg, MAN MTS Centre Crystal Castles
2 Aug 08 Minneapolis, MN Target Center Crystal Castles
3 Aug 08 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza Festival
5 Aug 08 Toronto, ONT Air Canada Centre Deerhunter
7 Aug 08 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena Deerhunter
8 Aug 08 Worcester, MA DCU Center Deerhunter
12 Aug 08 Knoxville, TN Knoxville Civic Coliseum Deerhunter
13 Aug 08 Duluth, GA Gwinnett Arena Deerhunter
15 Aug 08 Oklahoma City, OK Ford Center A Place To Bury Strangers
16 Aug 08 Houston, TX Toyota Center A Place To Bury Strangers
18 Aug 08 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center A Place To Bury Strangers
20 Aug 08 St Louis, MO Scottrade Center A Place To Bury Strangers
22 Aug 08 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena Does It Offend You, Yeah?
23 Aug 08 Auburn Hills, MI Palace of Auburn Hills Does It Offend You, Yeah?
27 Aug 08 East Rutherford, NJ Izod Center Does It Offend You, Yeah?
29 Aug 08 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center Does It Offend You, Yeah?
31 Aug 08 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena White Williams
2 Sep 08 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheater Deerhunter
3 Sep 08 Salt Lake City, UT The E Center of West Valley Deerhunter
5 Sep 08 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena Deerhunter
6 Sep 08 Inglewood, CA The Forum Deerhunter

tour [nin.com]

Another day, another festival lineup announcement; ...

Dan Gibson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Another day, another festival lineup announcement; this time the Voodoo Music Experience, scheduled for October 24-26 in New Orleans. No real surprises though, with Sasquatch's R.E.M. joining Bumbershoot's Stone Temple Pilots and Pemberton/Lollapalooza/Virgin Festival's Nine Inch Nails. The local acts that make Voodoo a little more interesting than your average fest include the Neville Brothers and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Also a nice touch: not inviting Tiesto back. [Billboard]

Trent Reznor Leaves A Package On Radio Programmers' Doorsteps

Maura Johnston — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EDT

ARTIST: Nine Inch Nails
TITLE: "Discipline"
DEBUT: April 22, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: "Discipline" is a completely fine Nine Inch Nails track that operates mostly in the same vein of Year Zero's singles, and it'll probably make at least the top 10 of the Modern Rock chart within the first week of its release thanks to the "wtf" factor surrounding its just dropping out of nowhere today. And its release was accompanied by a blog post that just said "2 weeks," which is fueling speculation that Reznor's going to release a full album of new, not-just-instrumental tracks within two weeks. (Hey, today is Tuesday.) So is this guy going to just put out a new album every two months or so now that he's free of label constraints?

WHERE TO FIND IT: Reznor's giving it away as a free download on his official site in a few hours, but for now you can find it right here!

Discipline (NEW Nine Inch Nails song) [YouTube]

Robin Finck Rejoins Nine Inch Nails--Does That Mean He's Not Going To Tour With Axl Anymore?

Maura Johnston — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:10:00 EDT

Trent Reznor announced on Friday that former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck would be back in the fold for his band's summer tour, which will hit Lollapalooza and the Pemberton Festival before traveling to various arenas and amphitheaters. Now, given that Finck was a touring guitarist with Guns N' Roses, and given that Axl has been making noise about maybe putting Chinese Democracy out in time to give everyone in the country a fizzy drink, and given that there's all that Velvet Revolver drama, what does this mean for Axl and his possible touring plans for the next few months? I'm sure that the speculation will be far, far better than whatever actually winds up happening, so, y'know, have at it. [Blabbermouth]

The Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, ...

Maura Johnston — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:50:00 EDT

The Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, and Stone Temple Pilots will headline ~~1999's~~ this year's Virgin Mobile Festival, which takes place at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Aug. 9-10. [Baltimore Sun]

Songkick's "Battle Of The Bands" Gives Internet-Beloved Artists A Chance To Shine

Maura Johnston — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:30:55 EDT

The new music-recommendation service Songkick—which sends out e-mail alerts to users when their favorite artists come to town, and uses a last.fm-like recommendation engine to tell its users about "similar artists" being out on tour—has developed a Battle Of The Bands application, which is sort of like Googlefight with the added nebulousness of using data from MySpace (like number of friends and number of song streams added per week) and Amazon. We put it to the test with three artists who have recently made headlines by using the Internet as part of their distribution strategy, and the results may surprise you:

Yes, that's right: An Internet chart that doesn't have Nine Inch Nails as its automatic No. 1. Are we seeing a sea change, or is this just residual bile from the obvious hiccup that the numbers experienced the week before?

Battle of the Bands [Songkick Labs]

Trent Reznor Sez Radiohead Didn't Really Mean It (At Least Enough To Satisfy Him)

Jess Harvell — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:45:00 EDT

Not content to sit back and mentally count the windfall from the first-week sales of his self-released opus Ghosts I-IV, Trent Reznor now has some words for Thom, Johnny, the bald one I always identified with, and the other two; since Trent's venture into online retail was so successful and offered higher-quality audio downloads (as well as CDs and various special editions), he feels Radiohead may have rushed the downloadable In Rainbows to market in order to look cool for all us media types, rather than because they were honestly trying to push the Web-age sales model forward.

"I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said when speaking to Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Michael Atkin. "But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale..."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Reznor continued, "but I don't see that as a big revolution [that] they're kinda getting credit for." In addition to the quality of Radiohead's MP3s, NIN's frontman also took issue with the band's omission of artwork and altogether not taking care of the fans. "To me that feels insincere. It relies upon the fact that it was quote-unquote 'first,' and it takes the headlines with it."

I thought there might have also been the intention to, you know, release a great album driving Radiohead's decision, but maybe I'm just being nostalgic for listening to records rather than artists yapping to any media outlet that will have them about their own biz-related ingenuity in the face of a dying monolithic blah blah blah. (I know, I know...I'm not allowed to say anything mean about Trent. Sorry. I really do like Pretty Hate Machine a lot!)

Reznor: Radiohead Offering Was Insincere, Industry Is Inept [Ars Technica]

Canada adds another giant outdoor music festival ...

Jess Harvell — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Canada adds another giant outdoor music festival thingee to 2008's pile; running from July 25 to 27, the British Columbia-area Pemberton Festival will feature "bands such as Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails and the Tragically Hip." Curse you, CanCon guidelines. (Also in about 10 years I'm totally going to look like the lead singer from the Tragically Hip. If by 10 years, I mean "pretty much now.") [Vancouver Sun via Daily Swarm]

NIN Goes YouTube (Perhaps With Your Help?)

Michaelangelo Matos — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Because snapping up $300 packages of new material might not be enough for the diehard faithful Nine Inch Nails luvvah these days, you, Trentoid of Reznoria, can now lend your Mac-editing-table talents to the cause that is Ghosts I-IV by placing your own visuals to his own music. Officially.

The NIN YouTube channel goes live at 6:00 p.m. PST today and will immediately begin accepting submissions through May 1 from fans creating visual accompaniments to selections from NIN's recently released Ghosts I-IV. The music of Ghosts I-IV, which was released under the Creative Commons license, will be readily available via YouTube's AudioSwap April 1.

Submissions will be reviewed by Trent Reznor, who will ultimately host a festival at a later date TBA featuring an assortment of outstanding contributions, among other surprises.

Can't begin to imagine what those surprises will be: Party hats? Kazoos? Cake and ice cream?

NIN Official Channel [YouTube]

Trent Reznor: (Purportedly) Getting That Paper

Jess Harvell — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:30:00 EDT

So the Nine Inch Nails frontman has released the first-week sales figures for Ghosts I-IV, the multiple-format instrumental album he self-released just two Sundays ago via his Web site. Given that the $300 super-mega-deluxe edition sold out its 2,500 copy pressing by the following Tuesday, even with a server snafu or twelve, it was clear that Trent was going to do pretty nicely for himself with this tweak to the newish model. But just how well did he do? Let's go to the un-vetted press release!

Nine Inch Nails' 36-track instrumental opus Ghosts I-IV, released March 2 via NIN.com, has amassed a first week total of 781,917 transactions (including free and paid downloads as well as orders for physical product), resulting in a take of $1,619,420 USD.

'Course Trent, like Radiohead, benefitted mightily in this sorta-pathbeating endeavor from his pre-existing celebrity and his rabid 'net-nerd fanbase. (Hard to imagine acts who never topped the Billboard album chart in the pre-BitTorrent era—like poor bridesmaid/experiment Saul Williams, for instance—moving over 2.5k of a $300 four-LP set in 48 hours or less.) And while you may dislike his music, find his Digg-ite cult irritating, and not share his intense distaste for traditional record labels and their slow-grinding machinery, if these numbers pan out (or keep going up), we all must now agree on one thing: TR knows how to stay Web 2.0 paid.

NIN New Album Pulls $1.6M In Its First Week [Billboard]

Perez Hilton Gives The Stink Eye To Thom And Trent As Readers Line Up To Be First!!!!1!! To Smack Him Down

Jess Harvell — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Whoops, I lied! Sorry. Looks like future failed A&R kingpin Perez Hilton has gone and voiced his concerns about the timeliness rumored Lollapalooza headliners Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead with his usual stinging brevity. (Total word count: 23. Total comments thus far: like, a lot.) But if you were expecting Perez's loyal army of whatever-the-hell-you-call-people-who-read-Perez-Hilton (Perezzies? Please tell me it's not Perezzies) to stand up to the NIN blog-reading loonies who will invariably descend on the PH comments box to rumble Sharks v. Jets/mods v. rockers/Marlo v. Avon/Mario v. Wario style, guess again. Turns out Perez's readers are none too happy with their Manic Panic'd, polyester-pants'd Buddha's sermonizing this time out. In fact, they're kinda pissy.

#29 - YES! says

are you seriously dissing both of these bands?? perez....come on now. get it together.

#33 - daisy says

shut the fuck up perez you don't know shit about music, you like janet jackson and kylie minogue

#34 - pH_99 says

Radiohead is bigger than jesus and the beatles. This concert will be huge.

Jesus and the beatles will be selling hot dogs there.

#36 - John Smith says

Wow, you have proven yourself to be a talentless prick who has no ability to respect talent. Nine inch nails is still going strong, and Radio head has made millions of dollars off of its new album (which was sold online for free or at a fan's price of choosing) simply due to the fact that they have such a huge broadreaching fanbase. Go back to your lesbian gangbang with hillary.

Oh, c'mon leave Hilary out of it, she's got enough to deal with this week with one of her biggest contributor getting busted for who knows how many hand-shandies. Meanwhile, 900 pages later:

#818 - perez is a fat fatty says
What the fuck do you know about rock music you fat annoying fuck? You probably think Fall Out Boy is Rock. Stick to Kylie and Madonna, McChunky. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are both amazing bands, anytime. I bet you smell like dirty hair Perez.
#918 - CELEB NEWS RUINS SOCIETY says
STICK TO POINTLESS NEWS AND DON'T TRY TO COVER IMPORTANT INFORMATION A.K.A RADIOHEAD & NINE INCH NAILS ARE 2 OF THE GREATEST BANDS OF ALL TIME A.K.A BRITNEY SPEARS & ONES LIKE HER IS NOT REAL MUSIC
#1004 - Roger says
Get a clue, Perez. Who would you want headlining? Jewel? That's who you were pimping earlier. SHE is ten years ago. Radiohead is NOW.
Rumor has it Madonna might also pull a Coachella and play Lolla this year. Does that tickle your clit

And it just kinda goes on like that. PH readers be likin' some In Rainbows. Leaving aside this evidence of the fine-tuned accuracy of Perez's pulse-finding finger (his considered opinions on the relevance/money-making potential of one of 2007's chart-topping acts should offer some solace to the more nervous suits at WMG), could this display offhand snark resulting in such mass ire be the first sign of Perez's comment bots abandoning him en masse, thus freeing us from our brief blogosphere nightmare/having to hear the words "oh, like Perez Hilton" whenever we tell an aging family member/man on the street what we do for a living? Please? No. Of course not. But we can dream. [Perez Hilton; HT to reader Mitch/Madman for starting my day the Perez way]

News That Radiohead And Nine Inch Nails May Be Headlining Lollapalooza Prompts More Comment-Section Humorlessness Than Ever

Maura Johnston — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:30:29 EST

Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot broke the news that Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are probably headlining this year's edition of Lollapalooza on his blog, and the comment-section posturers were out in full force, hoping to let people know that they were, in fact, anonymously better than everyone else. To wit: "I paid $2 to see Radiohead in concert once back when I lived in NYC."; "The secret sale tickets sold out in something like 13 minutes this morning. No wonder you missed it."; and "Great! Can't wait to spend over $200 to hear these normally great bands sound abnormally mediocre thanks to generic festival audio mixing! Yeepee!" But my favorite comment has to be the one that was in response to someone trying to make a feeble joke about Radiohead's first big hit—you know, the one that they released when they were merely a bunch of 120 Minutes also-rans:

@ Jeff:
"Sweet! I sure hope they play Creep...I love that jam!"

you are the exact person I don't want to see at this show. FYI - they've banned it from their repitore - thank god ...
Posted by: Phife | Mar 7, 2008 12:14:16 PM

This comment may be the ultimate example of Internet humorlessness, seeing as how it combines the following:

• Snobbery!
• Pedantry!
• Incorrect pedantry! (Dude should have checked Wikipedia: "After mid 1998 they did not play the song live at all until the final encore of their hometown concert at South Park in Headington in Oxford in 2001, when they played it in a seemingly impromptu decision after an equipment failure on the keyboard near the start of 'Motion Picture Soundtrack'. Since then they have played it 15 more times (including a performance of the song as they headlined V Festival 2006)."
• Misspellings!

Really, if it had a gratuitous self-link I would try to bronze it as an example of Everything Irksome About Internet Music Discussion In 2008. Do you think this guy has a blog?

Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails to headline Lollapalooza '08 [Turn It Up]

The 2,500-copy limited-edition run of Nine ...

Maura Johnston — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:45:48 EST

The 2,500-copy limited-edition run of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV—priced at $300, and packaged with a four-LP set and two Giclée prints—has sold out. (It probably would have moved a little bit quicker had the servers charged with selling the album in all its guises not completely crapped out in the hours immediately following its release, but hey, what are a few hours' difference when you're looking at a $750,000 payday?) [ghosts.nin.com]

In case you're having problems getting through ...

Maura Johnston — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:15:54 EST

In case you're having problems getting through to its official site, Trent Reznor's quadruple album Ghosts I-IV is also available via Amazon's MP3 store, where the DRM-free MP3s will set you back $5, just like Reznor intended. You still have to try and power through the traffic that's currently crippling the site to snag the liner notes, though. [Amazon MP3]

Trent Reznor Hoping That Internet May Be Moved To Actually Shell Out Money For Music

Maura Johnston — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:28:04 EST

Trent Reznor released the Nine Inch Nails album that he's been hinting at on his blog tonight, a 36-track instrumental collection titled Ghosts I-IV, which Reznor describes as "music for daydreams" and which he recorded last year. Like the Saul Williams collaboration that Reznor helped bring to market a few months back, people can obtain the new music for free (the first nine tracks of the album) or $5 (all 36 tracks); however, he's also giving his diehard fans the option to shell out even more money. Since the site's presently slammed, we'll give you the full details on how you can help support Trent's further musical efforts—for as much as $300!—after the jump.

Free download
Ghosts I: The first nine tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection as DRM-free MP3s, plus the 40-page PDF.

$5 download
Ghosts I-IV: All 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats, plus a 40-page PDF.

$10 two-disc set
A double-disc set, packaged in a Digipak with a 16-page booklet, to be shipped on April 8. Includes immediate download of album.

$75 deluxe edition
Ghosts I-IV in a "hardcover fabric slipcase containing two audio CDs, one data DVD with all tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-Ray disc of Ghosts I-IV. Ships May 1. Includes immediate download of album.

$300 "ultra-deluxe limited edition package"
Deluxe edition plus a four-LP set on 180-gram vinyl, which is packaged in a fabric slipcase. Two limited-edition Giclee prints are included; package is numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Limited to a run of 2500, and one piece per customer. Ships May 1 and includes immediate download.

So will he sell out of limited-edition packages? Or sell a lot of deluxe editions?

Order Options [ghosts.nin.com]
[Photo: AP]

Does a cryptic blog entry marked "2 Weeks" ...

Jess Harvell — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:05:31 EST

Does a cryptic blog entry marked "2 Weeks" on the Nine Inch Nails website mean that Trent Reznor is just 13 9 (!) days from "pulling a Radiohead"? Or does it really mean "two weeks until I can finally buy Nerf Herder IV"? [Metal Sucks]

We Read The Comments On Trent Reznor's "Ha Ha, TVT Is Toast" Post So You Don't Have To

Maura Johnston — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:45:37 EST

Especially because there are, at present, 596 responses to the cryptic post above, which Reznor posted last night, shortly after the news of his former label's imminent doom broke. And who wants to slog through a bunch of Internet fanboys/fangirls' incoherent ravings when there's someone around who's not only willing to do so, but willing to neatly categorize them for you?

CATEGORY 1: The easily confused.
Because they didn't realize that the text of Trent's blog post was, in fact, a hyperlink to the AllHipHop.com story breaking the news. Prone to using lots of punctuation.

Anonymous said...

????? Trent stop confusing me!!!!!!

18/2/08 6:50 PM

CATEGORY 2: The people who are just psyched to be there right now, man.
Or, people who don't really understand the Internet (blog-comment division).

Anonymous said...

TR Holaday again from Oklahoma City. thanks Trent for filming Halo 22 Beside You In Time here at the Ford Center. Oklahoma loves their NIN!!! Tool twice in six months!!! riddle117@aol.com

18/2/08 7:00 PM

CATEGORY 3: The pick-up artists.
Also known as the people who think that nin.com is actually hookupwithtrent.com.

iwannalicktrentswholeentirebody said...

I find it extremely sexy that you're happy about this. They deserve it.

18/2/08 10:02 PM

CATEGORY 4: The business-school dropouts.
The spelling lesson that covers "clientele" is clearly in the second-year curriculum.

ChristySue33 said...

Someone had said they felt sorry for all those people that lost their jobs. Here's my take. They were working for a company who's cliental were unhappy. Publicly unhappy. One client so unhappy he was actually telling his fans NOT to buy his cd. Clients were looking for ways out of their contracts ... which means, they were not going to renew when it reached it's end (if that's how it works). If you ask me, they had plenty of red flags. If they were smart, they would have prepared themselves, gotten new jobs lined up. I would have. How many people are we even really talking about here? It's not like we're talking about an entire series of factories closing down. They don't make the cd's, they just promote them. As for the CEO's of the company, too bad so sad ... I do not feel sorry for them at all. If they had treated their cliental more fairly maybe they wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

19/2/08 3:25 AM

CATEGORY 5: The people with obvious issues.
This could also be called "the people who forgot that they weren't at quirkyalone.com."

Hybrid 756 said...

Oh aye. WHY does everyone think everyone "needs" a woman, or a man, or another person or whateveritis?

IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE COMPLETELY OK WITH SOLITUDE???

Or am I just a complete fucking freak??

I don't understand people...

/rant

19/2/08 5:08 AM

CATEGORY 6: The confronters.
Who aren't afraid to step up and call the site's proprietor an asshole. (Hey, maybe he'll write a song about them now!)

robster said...

love your music trent but, can`t stand how you applaud the loss of people`s jobs and all the strain the falling of a record label will cause to its creditors, employees, artists and associates. Makes you sound like a REAL asshole. What about the upcoming artists without a large fanbase, instead record companies will focus investing in safe music and the artform itself will suffer

19/2/08 1:35 AM

CATEGORY 7: The people who should maybe think about getting blogs of their own.
Characterized by long-windedness, mutiple posts, bad spelling, despondency, and a curious need to bring Paris Hilton into their argument.

ChicLuba said...

ooo sounds like TR "might"( please take notice of this word) be a little pissed about something.

Very curious...

what did I miss?

was there another shotty interview?

18/2/08 9:36 PM

ChicLuba said...

Agreed, but it depends on whether he's getting paid for his work or just his face. Now it seems that art itself is not enough, you have to be an icon...

Which is detrimental to all artists.

Because without an audience to enjoy their work what is an artist?

It's ok to be an icon if you really are making art, because more than likely you'll inspire others, but it's not ok if your already an icon, and you just slop some shit together and call it art just to make money.

That is what's called a Paris Hilton... Although how she ever came to be an icon in the first place is beyond me...

what just because you're rich all of a sudden your famous, I mean I'd understand if she was contributing to charities, and doing philanthropy work or something like that, but becoming famous jst because she comes from a rich family...

What is the world comming to?

what happened to our standards?

18/2/08 9:47 PM

ChicLuba said...

chicluba, the text is a link.you must click it and read the story.

18/2/08 9:40 PM

oh! lol I feel like such a dummy, I didn't even notice =P

and I'm talking about the Cnet bs that went on a little while ago, taking someones words out of context to fit your purpose... that's not a very honorable way to report something.

18/2/08 9:50 PM

ChicLuba said...

oh wow... you know I haven't heard about TVT till now...

I'm so out of the loop >.>

18/2/08 9:53 PM

ChicLuba said...

ok first things first, lets not start putting words in my mouth...

I have no clue if Paris is a slut nor do I care to know considering it's none of our god damned businss to begin with, someone's sex life should be kept personal and not a public matter, that's just like what they did to clinton, people try to use it as ammo to tear someone down but in reality does that shit really fucking matter...

When I was younger I lived in a small town called Live Oak, we liked to call it Dead Oak, because the extent of fun you could have was going to a bowling ally, or doing drugs and making babies...

During a party I had gone to I ended up getting a little too drunk and made out with my room mate, which also happened to be a girl. Some people, without my knowledge, took pictures and the next thing I knew the wholetown knew about it and I was a "lesbian". BS of course and my reputation was ruined for a period of time, but in the end it didn't change the minds ofmy real friends, because they knew who I really was despite my drunken exploration.

Some people like to be taped when having sex... It turns them on, and whatever to each his own, but I don't think they should be condemned for it...

Now on the other hand, before Paris got into singing, before she did acting or any other form of entertainment, even before that stupid "Simple Life" BS, which I'm actually dissapointed in them for because they were really dicks to some of the people that took them in.

but before all that she was just some rich socialite, and that's what she became famous for, being a rich socialite, and that is where I think we have fallen off the mark as an audience, I mean sure it lead her to have an interesting career, I'm not going to say great, because personally I don't like her, but whatever, but this industry, whether you're an artist or a musician or a writer, is incredibly hard to get into, and I don't think it's really fair for people who have money to be able to just be famous just for having money...

think of all the artists who don't have money, but are on a much higher level of creativiy than PH, but they struggle because they don't have the cash flow to back them up...

I don't think art should be free, artists should be compensated for that hard work, and time and effort they put into it... it'snot as easy as snappin your fingers and it's done, I mean look at Piccaso, the man went in sane and chopped his ear off for the sake of art/ or love, but I mean that's well worth compensating him!

but I do think that it should be easier to get into the industry... so what you have to sort through a few crappy bands and artists to get to the good ones, it makes it like finding a diamond in the rough... it's well worth it if it brings some real art to the table...

who knows maybe the next "Einstein" of music is out there, but because he doesn't have money he can't do anything for us.. and I think that's a shame.

19/2/08 6:50 AM

(There's more. I'll spare you.)

CATEGORY 8: The people who in all likelihood do have blogs of their own and are probably penning their own version of this post right now.
Self-explanatory after you read the sample comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi I'm an excited anonymous commenter who has no idea what's going on or what this post even means but damned if that's going to stop me from saying something! Anything! It doesn't matter what it is, just that I say it here, preferably very quickly after the initial post is made! Just for the fleeting novelty of leaving some text on this temporary page - a disposable piece of nothing to help half a minute of my boring life pass by a little faster! Nine Inch Nails woooo!

18/2/08 6:59 PM

Post a Comment [Blogger.com]
Earlier: TVT Fires Most Of Its Staff, Is Expected To File Chapter 11

Angry (Or Old) (White) Dudes Believe Grammys Controlled By Other (Old) (White) Dudes

jharv — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:00:00 EST

Following last week's Grammy nominations, two rockers, Trent Reznor and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, have taken to their blogs to blast the nominating body for being run at the whim of "fifty-year-old white men" and "out of touch old men." The hell you say! Still, while not exactly a new criticism of the crusty ol' Grammys, Reznor and Wentz's grievances shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, and so we've presented them for you side by side (or one right under the other) to judge for yourself the validity of their beef.

Mr. Reznor:

While the music industry is doing everything they possibly can to go out of business, can we all make sure to rid ourselves of the Grammys, too? Out of touch old men jacking each other off.
ENOUGH!
Have a nice day.

Mr. Wentz:

the first reaction is jealousy mixed with a slight sense of entitlement. we just want to be a part of your club. we feel like the orphans in the movie the warriors, when we are just dying to be the baseball furies. the truth be told though when you explore it further than that you realize much more. other than the fact that we play the events for you and the right parties all the time (which is a bit embarrassing either for you or us, not sure which, possibly both. its kind of like being invited to a birthday party and then not allowed to eat the cake.)- it shouldnt mean much. (almost) noone in this industry has vision beyond the fear that this week is their last paycheck. we want our songs to be immortal and a statue doesnt do anything to help them live forever. it is the people that live and die with them in their ears and throats that give them life. we wont lie to you, accolades from our peers feel great. however, a fifty year old white man shouldnt decide whether we are relevant or not- and he doesn't. we wanted to thank you for making us feel relevant- for sitting up all night to get into our shows and for buying our music. it means more in the wake of moments like this. we know who we are based on those who would walk through hell with us. this is not a disappointment, rather a revelation on what is truly important. thanks.

Well, with Reznor this anti-academy ire feels slightly more credible/less sour grapes-y, especially considering the dude's been on a burn-down-the-industry tear for years now. Plus he's succinct. (Though at 42 he should probably be careful throwing around the words "old men" as an epithet.) On the other hand, Wentz comes off like the expected whiny wanker, though in keeping with emo fashion he does admit to the jealousy angle up front, and to further cover his ass he did go on to tell MTV that he didn't, like,really care. But whereas Reznor wants to ditch the awards entirely, you do get the impression Wentz would be more than happy to keep them if the nominees were being decided by 15-year-old white girls rather than 50-year-old white men.

Got Bitterness? [Fall Out Boy]
A Suggestion [NIN Blog]

Sure, everyone remembers Prince getting that ...

jharv — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:53:32 EST

Sure, everyone remembers Prince getting that shoutout in the Pretty Hate Machine liner notes, and but these pop-funky Nine Inch Nails demos are a glimpse of how an alternate universe Trent Reznor could have easily become a pale PA cousin to Stevie B. Since Trent's joined the pay-what-you-will school and is such an OiNK fan, we'll also just assume he won't be pissy about someone posting his unreleased early work. [McCrank's Juke]

This just in: New York's culture bloggers ...

mjohnston — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:30:37 EDT

This just in: New York's culture bloggers are totally shocked that a notorious Internet geek-slash-recluse engages in vanity searches! Tune in next week, when the magazine's cover story is given over to the stunning expose "New Yorkers Who Read New York: Some Of Them Are Actually, Like, Famous, OMG!" [Vulture]

Trent Reznor Now Free To Distribute His Albums Any Way He Damn Well Pleases

mjohnston — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:05:09 EDT

And that includes bathrooms, the stinkier the better. Because fresh from Nine Inch Nails' official site comes the news that anyone with even a passing interest in the band has been expecting for months:

Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.

First person to call Trent "the next Thom Yorke" gets a noogie!

nin.com [Official site]

Trent Reznor: Making Industry Friends Wherever He Goes

jharv — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:16:49 EDT

How to endear yourself to your fanbase while threatening your own retirement prospects: encourage them to pirate your work until such time as physical CDs become less costly. It's not a very sound long-term business model, but then ol' Trent's never been one for restrained, sensible decisions regarding his music. Just ask anyone who bought The Fragile at full price.

Reznor To Fans: Steal Music [Billboard]

Trent Reznor Does Not Want You To Pay A Lot For This CD

mjohnston — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:51:45 EDT

We're pretty sure that Trent Reznor will be parting ways with the entire major-label structure the millisecond his contract says he can. The latest piece of evidence pointing to this theory comes from his blog:

As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:

* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne's record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).
By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: "It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy."
So... I guess as a reward for being a "true fan" you get ripped off.

* The dreaded EURO Maxi-single. Nothing but a consumer rip-off that I've been talked into my whole career. No more.
The point is, I am trying my best to make sure the music and items NIN puts in the marketplace have value, substance and are worth you considering purchasing. I am not allowing Capital G to be repackaged into several configurations that result in you getting ripped off.

We're guessing that Trent's run-ins with his label have resulted in this "consumer advocate" side of him coming out even more fiercely. Perhaps once he breaks free from Interscope, he can turn into the David Horowitz of the music world, taking an army of crusaders to the racks in order to fight the music industry's worst tendencies.

Updates From Trent [nin.com]

The Last Word: Nine Inch Nails' "Zero" Impact

Brian Raftery — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:00:45 EDT

Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is Nine Inch Nails' just-released Year Zero:

- "Even his use of electronics has shifted to a new level: 'Vessel' evokes nothing so much as a sentient, schizophrenic computer having a nervous breakdown. Is the truth in here? Dunno, but Reznor's claim that 'I got my violence in high def ultra-realism' sounds like gospel to us. B+" [Entertainment Weekly]
- "And you can't accuse Reznor of laziness: Every song on the album is carefully thought through, and there isn't an inch of sonic space that hasn't been painstakingly decorated. But despite Reznor's efforts — and sadly appropriate, considering the album's themes — the strongest emotion "Year Zero" is likely to inspire is apathy." [Salon]
- "The fan-artist communion reaches a peak on the post-doomsday finale, 'Zero-Sum,' a welcome addition to the lofty tradition of NIN album-closing ballads. 'And I guess I just wanted to tell you,' says Reznor in a conspiratorial whisper, 'As the light starts to fade/ That you are the reason/ That I am not afraid.' It's the end of the world as he knows it, and he feels (relatively) fine. 6.7" [Pitchfork]
- "Even the electronic noises on "Year Zero" sound a bit old-fashioned: a throwback to the days when computer-generated music was full of static and blips. If "Year Zero" feels warm and, for better and worse, familiar, this is why. It's not really a cautionary tale: it's a reminiscence." [NY Times]

On The Shelf: Tomorrow's New Releases Revealed Today

mjohnston — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:35:03 EDT

In this week's edition of On The Shelf, Idolator's weekly look at select releases coming out on Tuesday: Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero at long last arrives, as do new albums from Avril Lavigne, Mark Ronson, and Bucky Covington.

Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero
The artist: Internet-friendly industrial powerhouse.
The sound: Apocalyptic, glitch-filled nightmares.
The first in line: Digg users. (The ones who buy CDs, anyway.)

Avril Lavigne, The Best Damn Thing
The artist: "Bratty" "punky" "Canadian" "blonde" "singer."
The sound: An overly self-satisfied eight-year old slapping you in the face for 45 minutes straight.
The first in line: Manga hounds.

Mark Ronson, Version
The artist: DJ/producer/Foreigner-fortune heir.
The sound: An all-covers album that's either completely ironic or completely sincere. We can't tell anymore.
The first in line: People who were really into the sound of Back To Black. (Honestly? They should really buy a Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings record instead.)

Bucky Covington, Bucky
The artist: The eighth-place finisher on last season's American Idol.
The sound: Gruffly slick slide-guitar pop. (Our prediction? It won't do Daughtry numbers, but it may outsell Taylor Hicks.)
The first in line: Idol watchers who can't wait for tomorrow's Martina McBride-shepherded episode.

On The CD Front [Pause & Play]

Leak Of The Day: Queens Of The Stone Age, Trent Reznor Enter A New Era

Brian Raftery — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:10:05 EDT

Faronheit has an MP3 of "Era Vulgaris," a collaboration between Queens Of The Stone Age and Trent Reznor that was slated to appear on the upcoming Queens album of the same name. The track was dropped, though, perhaps due to the fact that "Era Vulgaris" (the song) is sludgy and a bit dark, while Era Vulgaris (the album) is looser and groovier than its predecessors. Whatever the reason, we'll take it:

~~Queens Of The Stone Age feat. Trent Reznor - Era Vulgaris~~ [MP3, link removed; via Faronheit]
Queens Of The Stone Age [MySpace]

Meaningless Online Poll Turns Into Bloody Web-Bot Battleground

mjohnston — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:55:31 EDT

This month's Artist Of The Month poll on MSN started out as a five-way battle between Avril Lavigne, Patti Smith, Nine Inch Nails, The Bravery, and Pam Tillis; somehow, The Bravery pulled into the top slot. Fishy? Sure. But while we'd be content to just roll our eyes at yet another Internet poll of no consequence, Web-enabled Nine Inch Nails fans are rising up and re-engineering the poll—literally. In response to what they percieved as Geffen's rigging of the results, the nerd squad over at Digg and some other code geeks have crafted some Reznor-friendly bots who can vote multiple times, making the results somewhat hilarious:

1. Avril Lavigne 1%
2. Nine Inch Nails -6%
3. Pam Tillis 0%
4. The Bravery -14%
5. Patti Smith 0%

108385921 responses, not scientifically valid, results updated every minute.

Talk about "not scientifically valid"—do any of you math types out there even know how to calculate negative six percent of 108 million? Also, if Lavigne pulls it out, wouldn't this be the first time that a plurality in a five-way race can be claimed with 1% of the vote?

Record Labels + MSN vs. Nine Inch Nails Fans [dialaninja.com, via Digg]
Inside Music: Artist Of The Month [MSN]

Leak Of The Day: We Have Finally Reached "Year Zero"

mjohnston — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:47:44 EDT

Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero made its way to the Internet yesterday; we're not sure if the leak is yet another part of Trent Reznor's drawn-out marketing campaign for the album—which comes out on April 17—but we do know that Trent can still inflame the inner 15-year-old who still rages inside our withered souls from time to time, and that's not a bad thing at all:

~~Nine Inch Nails - Capital G~~ [MP3, link expired]
Earlier: The Tales Of The Very Leaky Year Zero

Even Trent Reznor Wants To Give The RIAA A Smackdown

mjohnston — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:56:09 EDT

Not to toot our own horns, but today we got a nice little bit of confirmation that those Nine Inch Nails leaks from a month or so ago were actually the work of Trent Reznor, and that the RIAA acted a bit too hastily in calling in their lawyers. From Billboard:

According to one post, a male fan, allegedly by happenstance, found a USB drive in a bathroom stall during a NIN concert at the Coliseum in Lisbon, Portugal. This flash drive (yes, Reznor's idea) contained an MP3 of album track "My Violent Heart." Additional USB drives were purportedly found in Barcelona and Manchester, England; they included MP3s of album tracks "Me, I'm Not" and "In This Twilight," respectively.

Excited fans then began swapping and sharing these music files online. Another Web posting alleged that all this activity resulted in entertainment blog Idolator and other sites receiving e-mail from the Recording Industry Association of America, demanding that they remove the MP3s from their sites. An RIAA representative confirms this, a move that boggles the minds of many. "These f*cking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on," the [label] source says.

You'd think that a trade group that supposedly "supports and promotes [its] members' creative and financial vitality" would at least check with said members before running off to suppress its artists' creative impulsives—or are the RIAA's people too busy thinking about perceived financial "vitality" to even care about that other part? Wait, don't tell us.

Online Odyssey Stoking Interest In New NIN Album [Billboard]
Earlier: RIAA Serving As Vaccine For Nine Inch Nails' Viral-Marketing Scheme

Trent Reznor To German Fans: Nein, Inch, Nein!

Brian Raftery — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:13:22 EDT

Remember that crazy Nine Inch Nails viral-marketing scheme, in which Trent Reznor's minions supposedly left MP3-loaded flash drives in bathroom stalls, and for which Reznor created a weird apocalytpic online game? Well, the campaign backfired for at least one German blogger, according to P2P Blog:

Christoph Boecken wanted to take part in the game as well. He didn't want to get accused of spreading unauthorized MP3s though, which is why he posted a Flash player on his blog that allowed streaming, but not downloading one of the songs.

A few days later Boecken received a letter from a well-known German law firm that handles piracy cases for NIN's label Universal Music, accusing him of copyright infringement. The letter didn't only demand him taking down the MP3 file in question, but also paying 500 Euro (about 675 USD) to cover the expenses for sending this letter. Invoices like this are regularly part of cease and desist letters in Germany.:

Boecken felt betrayed by Universal. After all, he had helped them with their marketing - and now he was supposed to pay for his efforts? He wrote a couple of frustrated rants on his blog, but eventually decided to pay the money because hiring a lawyer and dragging out the case could have been much more expensive.

By last week a growing number of German bloggers became aware of his case. They started spreading the word, writing emails to Universal and calling up the label in person. Finally they must have gotten through to someone who realized that lawyers aren't supposed to be part of your marketing. Universal Germany got in touch with Boecken over the weekend. They apologized to him, promised to pay back his expenses and give him a chance to meet the Nine Inch Nails backstage.

The lesson learned: You should really use your better judgment when it comes to posting songs—but even when you do, the labels will come after you, and you'll need a German letter-writing campaign and a lawyer to get them off your back. But then you'll get reimbursed, and you'll get to meet the band. Yay music industry!

When viral marketing goes awry [P2P Blog]

Videodrone: Nine Inch Nails Calls In The SWAT Team

Brian Raftery — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:41:22 EST

The apparently Sliver-inspired clip for Nine Inch Nails' "Survivalism" starts off rather snoozy, but then comes the nudity, and the gay sex, and the SWAT team. It's the sort of video that would have blown Stewart Stevenson's mind back in 1993.

Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism [YouTube]

Leak Of The Day: Nine Inch Nails Keeps Blowing Up

Brian Raftery — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:45:46 EST

Culture Bully and Deaf Indie Elephants point us in the direction of "In This Twilight," yet another intentionally-unintentional "leak" from Nine Inch Nails' upcoming Year Zero album. The new song is accompanied by an apocalyptic website that imagines ~~last night's~~ a future Oscar ceremony as a scene of utter chaos and misery—and not just because Little Miss Sunshine won Best Original Screenplay of Norbit II winning Best Picture:

IN MEMORIAM...
The first dirty bomb went off at the Kodak Theater during the 81st Annual Academy Awards Ceremony. Over the next half hour, eight more dirty bombs deployed by Islamic extremists spread a pall of radioactive dust across Greater LA. Three days later a Presidential order required the entire city to be evacuated.

The City of Angels had become a city of ghosts.

This site is dedicated to the people of Los Angeles who lost their homes, their loved ones, and their lives in Hollywood's last fade to black.

If this is indeed an official promotional site, we're not sure what's offensive: Invoking religious war as a marketing gimmick, or the sub-hack-level "last fade to black" kicker.

~~Nine Inch Nails - In This Twilight~~ [MP3, link removed]

Leak Of The Day: Nine Inch Nails, For The 900th Time

Brian Raftery — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:15:19 EST

Thanks to Deaf Indie Elephants for the heads-up that yet another track from Nine Inch Nails' upcoming Year Zero has leaked. Considering that "Me, I'm Not." is the third Zero song to surface in less than a week, we're either a very complicit cog in the most blatant viral-marketing schemes of all time, or Trent Reznor is spending all of his sleeping on bathroom floors in Spain.

~~Nine Inch Nails - Me, I'm Not~~ [MP3, link removed]

Leak Of The Day, Part Two: Nine Inch Nails' "Survival" Instincts Kick In

Brian Raftery — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:11:55 EST

Another track from Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero popped up this morning, courtesy of Noise For Toaster. It's the second high-quality Zero leak in less than a week, and we're guessing that someone in the Reznor camp is letting these loose (though please don't confuse "the Reznor camp" with Camp Reznor, which is a beloved upstate New York summer spot for children with low self-esteem and lots of Bauhaus shirts).

~~Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism~~ [MP3, link removed; via noise for toaster]

RIAA Serving As Vaccine For Nine Inch Nails' Viral-Marketing Scheme

mjohnston — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:13:06 EST

Yesterday, we posted an MP3 of a new Nine Inch Nails song that we found while doing our daily elbo.ws lap; after a brusquely worded note from Antipiracy@riaa.com, we removed the file, and that was that. Or so we thought. Today, we found a NIN-related Digg link that claimed the song had been "found on a usb drive in a bathroom in Portugal," which set off our "painstakingly crafted backstory" alarms. The file we posted yesterday was, in fact, tagged with that little bit of lore, along with a URL; as it turns out, the linked site is one of many viral-marketing outposts for the forthcoming NIN record. Which bolsters our theory that the leak was engineered by someone in the Reznor camp—after all, the number of alt-rock stations has been steadily decreasing for a while now, and labels have to be creative about getting songs that might not get airplay out to the public.

So what about that RIAA notice? Are they just working at cross-purposes with Nine Inch Nails' marketing consultants, or is this whole scheme yet another attempt to simultaneously make music bloggers look dumb and exploit their ability to get songs "out there"? We're sort of disgusted either way, which means that everyone loses. (P.S. Those "Web sites from the future"? They look like they've been in a time capsule since the last dot-bomb era.)

Nine Inch Nails Concept Album Builds Story With Websites From The Future [Digg.com]
Earlier: Leak Of The Day: Nine Inch Nails' "Heart" Attack

Leak Of The Day: Nine Inch Nails' "Heart" Attack

Brian Raftery — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:46:04 EST

"My Violent Heart" is the first track to surface from Nine Inch Nails' forthcoming Year Zero, and Fire In The Stereo is the first blog to post it. It's a little scratchy, but we can't tell if it's a radio rip or not, because just about everything Trent Reznor touches is bound to have some surface noise:

~~Nine Inch Nails - My Violent Heart~~ [MP3, link removed]