squeegasm: ghosts i-iv

[jlundberg]

Dudez! I am right! this! moment! downloading the spanky new instrumental album from Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts I-IV (Halo 26), and trying oh so very hard to contain my excitement. It's NIN's first album after quitting their record label and going indie, and is available in several formats:

• Free Download: The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as high-quality, DRM-free MP3s, including the complete PDF.
• US$5 Download: All 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats including a 40-page PDF.
• US$10 2xCD Set: Ghosts I-IV on two audio CDs in a six panel digipak package with a 16-page booklet. Pre-order, to be shipped April 8, 2008. INCLUDES immediate full download in a variety of digital formats.
• US$75 Deluxe Edition Package: Ghosts I-IV in a hardcover fabric slipcase containing: 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD with all 36 tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-ray disc with Ghosts I-IV in high-definition 96/24 stereo and accompanying slideshow. Pre-order, to be shipped May 1, 2008. INCLUDES immediate download in a variety of digital formats.

The album (in all formats) is released under a remix-friendly Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, and all tracks are completely free of Digital Rights Management. As I've stated before, Trent Reznor is an incredibly savvy and forward-thinking dude, and actually treats his fans as reasonable and smart human beings; his business model for Ghosts I-IV (refined after the recent releases of Radiohead's In Rainbows and Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!) rewards his fans, and makes it possible for casual listeners to get interested and spread the word.

From the man himself:

This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as... something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artists in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we're able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed - from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we've ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

- Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008

It'll be supremely interesting to have not one but four new albums worth of instrumental NIN. As soon as the zip file completes downloading (naturally, it's taking a while), and I get a chance to listen to it, I'll let y'all know. In the meantime, you can download Ghosts I completely for free, and taste the new music for yourself.

P.S. I heard about this very wonderful news from the Dresden Dolls mailing list, since Brian Viglione (who provides drums on tracks 19 and 22 of Ghosts I-IV) is the silent drumming half of the Brechtian punk cabaret duo.