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NiN's The Slip is Gratis

Quote:

Nine Inch Nails Album Is Free Online

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By JEFF LEEDS
Published: May 6, 2008

In an unusual nod to the popularity of free music online, the rock act Nine Inch Nails is offering its new album, “The Slip,” through its Web site — for nothing.
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Times Topics: Trent Reznor

In a post on the band’s Web site, www.nin.com, the band’s leader, Trent Reznor, said, “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years — this one’s on me.”

The album, which became available for download just after 3 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, appears to represent the first time a superstar act has distributed an entire album without any opportunity for people to pay for it. Its release comes two months after the band issued the instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” and allowed fans to obtain a portion of it for free or the entire recording for $5. Before that, the British rock act Radiohead broke with convention by offering its 2007 album, “In Rainbows,” online under a tip-jar-style setup in which people could name their own price — including zero.

Mr. Reznor’s new offer could serve as another test of how the easy availability of free music online affects subsequent CD sales and other money-making opportunities. “The Slip” will not be sold on CD or vinyl until at least July, according to representatives for the band. But the free digital version could stoke interest for Nine Inch Nails’ recently announced concert tour. Already, radio stations have shown interest in “Discipline,” a song from “The Slip” that was released about two weeks ago.

As with the “Ghosts I-IV,” the new album is being released with a Creative Commons license, an unconventional type of intellectual-property license that allows the copyright holder to specify which rights it does and does not reserve. The band is allowing fans to share or remix the music for non-commercial purposes.

The record industry, which has suffered a protracted sales slump, has experimented with a handful of ventures built on offering music for free while generating revenue from advertising sales. And free music is becoming part of many big acts’ publicity campaigns. Last week, the British rock act Coldplay, signed to the music giant EMI Group, announced that it is offering “Violet Hill,” the first single from its upcoming album, for free for a limited time.

Not everyone seems convinced that such giveaways will emerge as much more than a promotional gimmick — not even Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. He recently told The Hollywood Reporter trade paper that his band’s pay-what-you-want offer was a one-time thing. “I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again,” he said. “It was a moment in time.”

But Jim Guerinot, the talent manager whose clients include Nine Inch Nails, suggested otherwise. “I think free has been very important for a long time,” he said. He noted that Nine Inch Nails itself oversaw the leaking of certain tracks from its last major-label album, 2007’s “Year Zero,” as part of a reality game designed to excite fans. Since the now-independent band controls its own recordings, he added, it can “acknowledge what the marketplace is already showing us: free exists whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Let’s acknowledge that, use it and do something with it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/ar...d-nine.html?hp

I didn't care for the first Ghost section, so I didn't buy the rest. I'm happy to see music makers taking an active interest in the way and how much people consume music. I can't wait to give this album a listen.

Stayed up last night to get this...but I didn't think it'd be free! I was very surprised when I saw his message.

My guess is that he planned on charging for it just like Ghosts, but Ghosts went so well that he decided he could release this one for free.

Quote:

...it can “acknowledge what the marketplace is already showing us: free exists whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Let’s acknowledge that, use it and do something with it.”

Kudos to Mr. Reznor for acknowledging the reality of the situation.

I've said it before -- filesharing is not going away. You can't sue it out of existence and you can't legislate it either. Having known a few hackers in my day, I know there is no way to account for their ingenuity in finding new ways to circumvent the system. Given that, it's a fool's game to do anything other than try to adapt to the new marketplace.

The Big Four equate free with going out of business because it's incompatible with their current business model and they aren't willing or able to change. Setting aside the question of whether or not they're even necessary anymore, they seem to be ignoring several existent industries that manage just fine while charging their consumers nothing. Music in particular is unique in this regard because live shows make up a significant portion of the revenue for all but the biggest acts, and the experience of seeing a band live cannot be pirated.

you couldn't try to pirate daft punk live if you tried.

I'm STILL kicking my ass for missing the chance to see them in Seattle.

/cry

Downloading it as I type.

Saw NIN last year with Bauhause. They are coming around again in August and am eagerly awaiting news of when the tickets go on sale.

Sadly, since they're doing Lollapalooza here, they're not doing any other concerts in the area on the upcoming tour. Which sucks, cause Lollapalooza tickets are expensive :(

The tour with Bauhaus was great though. Onodrim and I were right in the front :)

and people wonder why I say Trent is God.

oh and.. I'm so glad it's offered in FLAC

Anyone have a lyrics link for these? I like to tag my songs as to whether or not they contain profanity...

So awesome.. he did this with another CD, no? I seem to remember finding a direct .torrent link on his site for one of his CDs. After I downloaded it, I thought it was so cool that he was releasing it that I bought 3 CDs, a poster, and a shirt.

God I love when artists have the freedom to stand up for what they believe in. Also, NIN is awesome. Saw them at Red Rocks last year.

I've definitely paid enough money to Trent Reznor over the years to have earned a freebie. I appreciate that he acknowledged that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlemon

Anyone have a lyrics link for these? I like to tag my songs as to whether or not they contain profanity...

well being Trent, I'd say most of them have some profanity in them ;)

I downloaded the new album yesterday - didn't realise it was the first day out. Cool! It's good so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlemon

Anyone have a lyrics link for these? I like to tag my songs as to whether or not they contain profanity...

There's a PDF in the zip file, which I thought had the lyrics in, but a check just now shows that it doesn't.

Tried google?

This is really, really cool.

"Echoplex" is my favorite song off the album at the moment.

--jaded

They weren't up yesterday, but the lyrics can now be found at Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (2008) - lyrics from LyricWiki.

Quote:

Originally Posted by guccilvr

and people wonder why I say Trent is God.
oh and.. I'm so glad it's offered in FLAC

Better than FLAC... it's also offered in 24/96!! For free!! That's obscene, mate.

Yeah, this is awesome! I'm late, but downloading it now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lak

Better than FLAC... it's also offered in 24/96!! For free!! That's obscene, mate.

Don't get too excited.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'Alex B' date='May 6 2008, 20:25' post='563666' Hydrogen Audio

Surprisingly the 96/24 version appears to be more compressed and clipped. Something must have gone terribly wrong.

Here is an example - Amplitude statistics and waveform screenshots from Adobe Audition:

44.1 kHz 16-bit, Track: 10 Demon Seed, passage: 3 min 50 s - 4 min 00 s

Left Right
Min Sample Value: -32766 -32766
Max Sample Value: 32765 32765
Peak Amplitude: 0 dB 0 dB
Possibly Clipped: 0 0
DC Offset: -.037 .013
Minimum RMS Power: -8.42 dB -5.46 dB
Maximum RMS Power: -5.15 dB -2.08 dB
Average RMS Power: -6.41 dB -4.15 dB
Total RMS Power: -6.38 dB -4.06 dB
Actual Bit Depth: 16 Bits 16 Bits

Using RMS Window of 10000 ms

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...A/bb39e1a5.png

96 kHz 24-bit, Track: 09 The Four of Us are Dying, passage: 3 min 50 s - 4 min 00 s

Left Right
Min Sample Value: -32768 -32768
Max Sample Value: 32768 32768
Peak Amplitude: .01 dB 0 dB
Possibly Clipped: 75 439
DC Offset: -.099 .038
Minimum RMS Power: -7.64 dB -4.06 dB
Maximum RMS Power: -3.39 dB -.61 dB
Average RMS Power: -4.83 dB -2.76 dB
Total RMS Power: -4.8 dB -2.7 dB
Actual Bit Depth: 24 Bits 24 Bits

Using RMS Window of 10000 ms

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...A/8a03bf6c.png

(Both songs are the same. As said before, there appears to be a naming error.)

There is something wrong will the 24/96 WAVs were it seems they are just sampled from the 16/44 files.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'SebastianG' date='May 5 2008, 21:53' post='563477' HA

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'Axon' post='563471' date='May 5 2008, 23:37' HA

FLAC -5 gives an average bitrate of 1822kbps. Is that consistent with 16/96 (padded)?

I just tried on track 5:

Code:

-rw-r--r--   48096110 2008-05-05 23:48 05-2496-16.flac

-rw-r--r--  109307656 2008-05-05 23:48 05-2496-16.wav

-rw-r--r--   48400191 2008-05-05 21:06 05-2496.flac

-rw-r--r--  163974520 2008-05-05 21:06 05-2496.wav

the "-16" version is just truncated to 16 bits (no dithering) and compresses roughly to the same size. Within the sections I checked via hexdump you can see that every third byte is a zero byte. So, it looks like its mostly only 16 effective bits -- at least for track 5.

Other than that the spectrum shows some sounds above 24 kHz which are likely to be aliasing -- maybe due to bad resampling within one of the tools he used (ie sampler).

I'd say the 24/96 version is a waste of bandwidth assuming this applies to all tracks.
I like the album, though. Gonna keep the 44kHz 16bit FLAC versions... :)

Cheers,
SG

Taken from HA - http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=63086