Posted on March 4, 2008 by Avi Flax

NIN at the Cutting Edge of Music Distribution

With the release of their new album Ghosts I-IV, Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails have raised the bar of music distribution to the next notch.

The first order page :

A great set of options, ranging the gamut from free to $300, from digital downloads to CDs to vinyl to Blue-Ray. I really like that the options are selectable with check boxes, so, for instance I could order the $5 download and the $10 2-CD set, with a single transaction, without having to add them to a "shopping cart" and then "check out".

If you click the "more info" link under the $5 download option, this graphic pops up:

Again, a great set of options, covering a full range of convenience, quality, and ideology. The rest of the ordering process is straightforward and effective. I didn't think of getting screen shots, but the screen where you choose which file format you want - which smartly appears during the "pickup" phase, after payment - is clear and - again - effective.

I actually like that the non-free download option has a fixed price of $5 - there's less to decide than a name-your-own-price scheme such as Radiohead used for In Rainbows, and it means that I know that the musician is good with the price. Plus it's just a bargain - 36 CD-quality DRM-free tracks for $5!

ReadWriteWeb has some good background about Reznor's previous attempt at digital music distribution. The Wall Street Journal's Business Technology blog laughably describes BitTorrent as an "underground filing-trading service." (And who wrote that post anyway? It's anonymous! Lame.)

Tip: Downloaded the album, and wondering where to keep that nice PDF booklet? If you use iTunes, you can just drop it in to your library, right next to the tracks themselves. I even set the Artist and Album fields so that the booklet shows up in the track listing.

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