Author Topic: Suck An Egg RIAA (Read 17177 times)

tinjaw · « **on:** March 11, 2008, 12:25 PM »

Trent Reznor once again proves that talent alone can make money. The news is all over the music news sites. There's a good summary article on Salon.

1 second summary:

Price is $0.00 to $300.00 USD
The $300 version is limited to 2500 and was sold out in less than 24 hours. (hint hint That is $750,000 direct to the artist in one day.)
people can freely sample the work and it is provided in a lossless format
You can even buy a good ole CD, but even that has lossless digital version on it as well.

Renegade · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2008, 02:55 PM »

This is nothing short of beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous, uplifting, <add in more praise here>, news.

The RIAA and the MPAA need to figure these things out, and see that there are other revenue models out there.

NSFW

"Fuck the RIAA" song is here.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2008, 03:14 PM »

It's a step, but it will be nice when artists who aren't already superstars like Radiohead or NIN can make a decent amount by offering direct to listeners. I know it'll happen, but I'm not sure how long it'll take or exactly how it will look/work.

tinjaw · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2008, 06:25 PM »

I am home now and downloaded my purchase. Here is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in quite some time. The image below has been copied from the NIN album Ghosts I-IV.

Yes, that is right. One of the most successful artists in the music world has just made his album available under the Creative Commons.

YEAH! I call that a win !!

scancode · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2008, 06:34 PM »

CC? Music? Lossless?

tinjaw · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2008, 06:41 PM »

CC? Music? Lossless?
-scancode (March 11, 2008, 06:34 PM)

You can feel the freedom in all its FLAC juicy flavor.

I think this might even inspire me to dust off my old m-audio sound card, midi keyboard, and monitor speakers and make some remixes myself.

scancode · « **Reply #6 on:** March 11, 2008, 06:51 PM »

You can feel the freedom in all its FLAC juicy flavor.
-tinjaw (March 11, 2008, 06:41 PM)

Too bad freedom doesn't come in 56kbps AAC+...

Finally we're seeing some light in this music issue...

tinjaw · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2008, 07:05 PM »

Too bad freedom doesn't come in 56kbps AAC+...
-scancode (March 11, 2008, 06:51 PM)

FLAC can easily be converted to any other format. FLAC is as good as having the digital masters.

They also offer (lossy) mp3 and (lossless) only-plays-in-itunes formats (AAC IIFC)

Lashiec · « **Reply #8 on:** March 11, 2008, 07:59 PM »

Now, let's wait for the sales figures. The first experiment that Trent Reznor did (with another artist) was a total failure.

So, is the album any good? I'm not really into NIN, mostly because I listened to few songs by ~~them~~ him

I should say that, despite the media coverage of this movement, Reznor is not the first in offering his music in such a free way (compared with the rest). Metallica, yeah, yeah, you're reading right, the same Metallica that confronted Napster, had been offering a ton of their live shows in MP3 and FLAC formats for between 10 and 13 dollars. AND they also have a free for everyone handful of old shows, spawning their complete career, to download, although only in MP3 format (CBR at 192 kbps).

tinjaw · « **Reply #9 on:** March 11, 2008, 09:03 PM »

Technically Nine Inch Nails is a them, but Trent has always been the core of the group and the one who interacts with the media and the fans.

I just downloaded and listened to the whole album and I like like it. It is an instrumental work, which is a departure to what NIN has done in the past, but is still in the same musical spectrum as their other albums. I know only a few will understand what I mean when I say I see Ghost is to Trent Reznor as This Binary Universe is to Brian Transeau (a.k.a. BT). Brian always wanted to work with a full orchestra and got to do so because of Monster (he did the soundtrack). Trent has always wanted to do a sort of storytelling via music that he knew wouldn't work as a standard music industry release as anybody other than true fans would probably not like it because they only like NIN's top 40 hits. Ghost is only possible because of the way it was made and how he is selling it.

As with most works that venture from the beaten path of any artist, I am sure Ghost will age well and be appreciated more every time it is listened to. You need to digest it to understand how it differs from past works and why. That can't be gotten at first glance, but instead requires some study.

But I will all but guarantee that none of Ghost's track will ever be heard on any mainstream radio station and will get tons of airplay from college stations.

tinjaw · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2008, 09:14 PM »

I should say that, despite the media coverage of this movement, Reznor is not the first in offering his music in such a free way (compared with the rest).
-Lashiec (March 11, 2008, 07:59 PM)

If you just look at is as "just another free download" it might appear that way. There are several things that are different though.

Number ONE is that it is being released under a CC license. This is HUGE. It let's fans enjoy, not only the "official" version of a song, but also provide infinite possibilities as source material for origional thought and new works. TTBOMK nobody of Trent's stature has do so on this big of a scale.

Second, NIN isn't just offering a CD at a "Donation Ware" price, but a variety of formats at the time of the origional release. Before it was traditional audio CD now. iTunes and other format paid downloads soon after. Then a boxed set some years later. The extended collector's edition years later. NIN released essentially all of that from Day 1. Some free tracks. $5 for the whole album. $10 for the whole album on physical two CDs of the same quality as "store bought" traditional retail CDs, that also include DRM-free digital versions on the same CDs, as well as a more expensive ($75) deluxe boxed set, as well as a $300 true fan uber boxed collector's edition.

Third an existing website visited by the artists directly that will host fan's remixes and discussion there of.

Fourth it's

Trent Reznor !!!

Fifth Who needs a fifth when you have the fourth?

Deozaan · « **Reply #11 on:** March 11, 2008, 10:00 PM »

Is there a link to info on the album somewhere?

tinjaw · « **Reply #12 on:** March 11, 2008, 10:25 PM »

The album's website.

Renegade · « **Reply #13 on:** March 11, 2008, 10:49 PM »

Too bad freedom doesn't come in 56kbps AAC+...
-scancode (March 11, 2008, 06:51 PM)

And it never will... AAC isn't free...

See ViaLicensing for all the patents and licensing info.

f0dder · « **Reply #14 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:13 AM »

FLAC can easily be converted to any other format. FLAC is as good as having the digital masters.
-tinjaw

Not if the digital masters are in 96KHz 24bit multichannel format and the flac is 44.1KHz 16bit stereo...

- but yes, FLAC is lossless, so it's even better than digital CD audio, which isn't as lossless it should be.

So, is the album any good? I'm not really into NIN, mostly because I listened to few songs by ~~them~~ him
-Lashiec

I like it. It's instrumental & different, but I've been enjoying listening to it when biking to/from work, and while working. I think it would be a good backdrop while programming, too. I just need to fix up track metadata so the tracks show up in order on my Sansa e280 media player... it got pretty confused since there's 9 tracks called Ghosts I, 9 tracks called Ghosts II, 9 tracks called Ghosts III, and 9 tracks called Ghosts IV. Since the sansa orders by metadata and not filesystem hierarchy, well...

I guess Ghosts is similar to what Reznor wanted to do back with The Fragile but ended up not doing?

scancode · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2008, 11:02 AM »

Too bad freedom doesn't come in 56kbps AAC+...
-scancode (March 11, 2008, 06:51 PM)

And it never will... AAC isn't free... See ViaLicensing for all the patents and licensing info.
-Renegade (March 11, 2008, 10:49 PM)

AAC isn't free... and Internet access isn't, either.

64/64 here, so FLAC is not an option...
Do you know about any other sound codec that actually sounds good at low bitrates?

Edvard · « **Reply #16 on:** March 12, 2008, 12:51 PM »

Do you know about any other sound codec that actually sounds good at low bitrates?

Ogg Vorbis.

Lossy, but I hear it can encode 5.1 surround at as good quality as stereo mp3 in the same space.

Lashiec · « **Reply #17 on:** May 05, 2008, 08:45 AM »

Mr. Reznor is at it again. He must be trying to beat mouser at his own game or something (creating new works at light speed).

f0dder · « **Reply #18 on:** May 05, 2008, 06:03 PM »

I'm wondering if I should listen to the new album now, or get a good night's sleep first. The two single tracks released before the whole deal seemed pretty poppy, but not bad. Anyway, it's nice to see Reznor release stuff this way, and it'll be interesting to see what it means for him financially

Renegade · « **Reply #19 on:** May 06, 2008, 12:35 AM »

OMNIN!

These are the FASTEST torrent downloads I've ever seen! INSANE!

NIN does it again! The REMIX site had almost 11,000 people online RIGHT THEN! And it's 2:30PM here! That's the middle of the night in North America! (Or are NIN fans just night hawks?)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** May 06, 2008, 05:07 AM »

I tried the torrent download and gave up when it refused to go above 1.2k/s after a number of hours. The MP3s were amazingly good download speeds (I was getting over 900k/s which is about the theoretical max my telephone line will support).

f0dder · « **Reply #21 on:** May 06, 2008, 07:46 AM »

I reached around 2MB/s on the .flac torrents, that's pretty much my theoretical max. Guess I either hit the swarm at a good time, or that Carol's torrent client isn't properly set up?

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #22 on:** May 06, 2008, 08:12 AM »

I was trying to access the HiQ WAV format and it was SLOW! (My uTorrent seems to work fine when BT actually allows me to download files - they seem to profile Torrent downloads off the system at certain times of day).

tinjaw · « **Reply #23 on:** May 06, 2008, 01:02 PM »

I downloaded all versions and listened to it in its entirety three times before bed last night. I'll be listening to it today when I go for my run.

Lashiec · « **Reply #24 on:** May 06, 2008, 02:01 PM »

I downloaded all versions and listened to it in its entirety three times before bed last night. I'll be listening to it today when I go for my run.
-tinjaw (May 06, 2008, 01:02 PM)

So you're a NIN fan then? ;)

Carol doesn't get good speed, and I don't even get the torrent file... OK, now it's going. WOW! 4024 seeds, no wonder about the speeds. I should say that the whole process is set up in a very nice way, complete with explanations, even novice users should have no problem getting the most appropriate format for them, this is a model for future artists choosing this path.

BTW, Ghosts is also available now at the Internet Archive, in every imaginable format, and with all the extras. If you want to try (or remix) the goods before buying them :)