Trent Reznor is my Hero

Here's a guy who knows how to do it right. Last fall Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, recorded 36 new tracks that he has now collected into a double lp titled Ghosts I-IV, and is available right now.

You can grab 9 of the tracks for free of the Nine Inch Nails website, or $5 for a digital download of all 36 tracks, which includes a 40 page pdf of art and other goodies.

This follows the trend starting with Radiohead's In Rainbows "pay what you want" experiment last fall, where people could literally pay what they want for their new record (including nothing). 

Trent Reznor produced the new record for hip-hop artist Saul Williams titled The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust that was released in roughly the same time period. People had the option of a free download or a higher quality download for $5.

The distribution of music by major record labels has been failing in the age of digital downloads and pirating, and this is just another shot at industry in general. I say kudos again to Reznor, and have other words reserved for those at the major labels.

In case you missed it: Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I-IV.