I am, by no means, a Nine Inch Nails fan. I do think what they are doing is cool though. Like Radiohead, NiN is allowing listeners to download 9 tracks for free off their web site. As you may recall, Radiohead allowed users to download the entire album, In Rainbows, back in October of last year.
After this decision to ditch their label and release the album on their own a lot of speculation began circulating as to whether this was the wave of the future or not.
Now with NiN jumping on the free download bandwagon (in a modified fashion) it seems we will just may be getting more free (and legally so) music in the future. The hope the bands express is that if people like the free tunes, they will be willing to buy the rest of the tracks (NiN) or extra material (Radiohead) or maybe even a solid-state copy of the album at a later date.
So what's the one problem with Nine Inch Nails approach? The problem is, after all's said and done, you're still left with Nine Inch Nails music*.
*In all fairness, I did really like the addition of Nine Inch Nails music to the original Quake --- it really made the game!
Ghosts I-IV
Posted by Benjamin Crum at 3/06/2008 09:42:00 AM
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3 comments:
Amie Street (www.amiestreet.com) is a great source of free or nearly so music. They are getting some bigger name musicians on there (in the past few weeks they've added albums from Thom Yorke, Cat Powers, Interpol, Vampire Weekend and many others), but they specialize in small label and unsigned artists. All tracks start at free and go up from there; the more popular the track, the more expensive it is. The maximum track price is $0.98 and the maximum album price is $8.98 (for the most part). Worth checking out to find some cool new music.
BTW -- I'm not a NiN fan, either, but you have to applaud their move and hope that their example, along with Radiohead's will pave the way for more "mainstream" (using the term loosely in the case of NiN and Rh) artists to follow suit.
My first comment was meant to illustrate the fact that there is a movement afoot to shed the big labels and move to a more independent distribution model that will also provide income for non-established artists. Didn't mean to hijack your post with an ad for AS (although I am a huge fan of theirs and love what they have done for music on the internet; no DRM, free or almost free music, all legally downloaded. What's not to love?).
kevin, I just checked out amiestreet and it is pretty cool (a great place, as I found, to host live concerts). As for there being "free" tracks, I think I need to do some more snooping. Thanks for the link.
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