I came onto here to see what people thought of the new Nine Inch Nails album - I'd assumed there would be a discussion not only of the music, but also the innovative method they are selling the album.

Astonished to find no threads about it at all - did I mis-search?

So, despite being a newbie, I'll do a post about it.

It's available in several different formats.

The first nine tracks of the album (Ghosts I) are downloadable free (no DRM either).
The whole album is downloadable for the princely sum of US$5 (again, no DRM, and in multiple formats, all of which are very high quality).
You can pay $10 for a two CD set, or $75 for a deluxe edition including blu-ray disc and a slide-show, or $300 for an ultra-deluxe limited edition. (Actually, you can't get the last one now, because it's sold out).

So for five dollars, what have I got to lose, I thought? I know nothing at all about NIN, but I've downloaded it.

Hmmmm. OK. I'd be interested to hear comments from people who know more about their previous music.

The downloads include a PDF - and each track has it's own "cover art" built in. All of them properly tagged, too.

I have to say, I thoroughly approve of this - it takes Radiohead's idea one step further. Finally, DRM seems to be dying on it's feet - people are just ignoring it and realizing that if the price is right, and the package is right, and the convenience is right (you can pay for the Nine Inch Nails album by PayPal) then people will buy digital music.

(Of course, there are exceptions - there are already torrents out there of the whole album - but I guess some people won't even pay $5 if they can get something for free. Ah, well.)

I'm happy to see you here (a great bunch of posters but it's been slow lately), and glad for the information.

Since I have iTunes/iPod, I don't always want entire albums, just the cuts I like.

My nephew told me about the Radiohead downloads but I didn't understand exactly how that works. Could you explain it?

This one is the same - only in some ways, even better. You go to the site linked above, and just select either the free download for the first nine tracks, or the $5 for all of them. Then just click on the link supplied and it will automatically download to your computer (probably by default to the desktop). It's downloaded as a ZIP file, which you just extract to your machine. Then you just connect up your iPod and copy the files using drag and drop to your machine.

I don't use iTunes myself, but I know there are ways of including downloaded albums (from other sources rather than apple) into your iTunes space and using the automatic sync'ing with your iPod. If you're not sure how that's done, I'd have to defer to an expert. But I know it's not hard...! I'm sure your nephew would be able to help you.

If Radiohead started this and Nine Inch Nails is continuing in a similar fashion, I suppose presenting these options will become the norm in the future.

I have no problem paying for music I like, but the idea of selecting exactly what I want appeals to me.

And with no DRM, it should be easy to use!

Ahhhh......... NIN. I miss "Head Like A Hole" and "Closer" ...

And if you like NIN's older stuff, try listening to Gravity Kills.