Last week Trent Reznor came out of nowhere (once again) and offered a new NIN album totally free, a move that is undoubtedly meant to boost fan loyalty. The album, called The Slip, is available without DRM and in multiple formats. “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me,” Reznor wrote on the NIN.com site.
Fans can grab the album in a variety of formats, including MP3, various lossless (FLAC or Apple), or 24-bit/96-KHz WAV files (better than CD quality). Vinyl and CD versions will go on sale in July.
Not only is The Slip available for free, but it was released under the Creative Commons “attribution noncommercial share-alike” license. A note on the NIN.com site says: “We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.”
Additionally, Nine Inch Nails announced a unique concert pre-sale that offers registered fans the best seats, a ticket imprinted with their name, early venue access and more. Simply put, Reznor is paving the way for the next generation of musicians who control their content and thrive via a direct connection to fans.
Lefsetz chimes in on the NIN promotion, and while I agree with many of his observations, I am at odds with him saying that Reznor did it wrong by offering an entire album at once:
“As for Trent dropping another album… I wouldn’t do it this way. Maybe he sees the record as a cohesive whole. But the key in the future is a little bit on a regular basis. Because this is what fans WANT! New music, more info, they want to feed their addiction. Rather than drop a load on them infrequently, give them something they can ponder for a few days or a week, then leave them hungry for a MONTH FROM NOW!”
Although this is a very progressive idea, one that Mark Cuban offered a few months ago, this isn’t what I would’ve wanted and I don’t feel like serializing the free tracks is all that compelling. If it was done that way, I probably would’ve waited until the entire album was available before I would bother visiting the site and downloading the tracks. I really have to disagree with Lefsetz on this one.
Recently, the band Coldplay offered a free download of the new single off their forthcoming album, and although I am a casual fan of Coldplay (which is to say I bought three of their previous albums), I don’t feel compelled to retrieve their free track. Why? There’s no perception of value present for me - definitely not like there is when an entire album is offered for free.
So, I ran across this article at Hitwise Intelligence (graph above) that measures the share of US Internet visits of Radiohead vs. NIN vs. Coldplay websites. I guess you can say it measures a free album vs. a free track as suggested by the size of Radiohead’s spike (back in September ‘07) vs. Coldplay’s spike (this month). It will be interesting to see going forward if Coldplay’s website visits remain higher after the release of the single than before and also NIN - The Slip spike vs. Coldplay’s spike (as I don’t believe that is represented on the graph).
Again, I don’t believe releasing a single free track for download is substantial enough to get me to make an effort to visit an Artist’s website. Very little perception of value - even when I am a fan. Thanks Trent for the free album - definitely worth my time.
Nine Inch Nails Gives Fans The Slip | Listening Post from Wired.com
Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » Trent’s Album
This One’s On Me: Reznor Just Gives It Away — Digital Music News
Hitwise Intelligence: Coldplay Compared To NIN And Radiohead
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