A new approach to music distribution

Trent Reznor seems to be very happy with the outcome of his latest experiment, that is the release of the 36-tracks instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” adopting a freemium business model:

“[...] First of all, a sincere THANK YOU for the response to Ghosts. We are all amazed at the reaction for what we assumed would be a quiet curiosity in the NIN catalog. My faith in all of you has been restored – let’s all go have coffee somewhere (my treat)! [...]“

Ghosts I (which includes the first 9 tracks of the album) can be downloaded for free, while the complete version can be bought at different costs on the base of four different formats: simple download (5$), 2xCD set + download (10$), deluxe edition + download (75$) and the ultra-deluxe limited edition (300$). The fourth was sold out in a very short time.

Taking into account that the free version was also personally put on the BitTorrent streams by Trent and that all the 36 tracks are released under a Creative Commons (by-nc-sa) license, Ghosts I-IV can be easily seen as a successful milestone in the revolution that is shaping the new forms of music creation, modification and sharing.

The next experiment is the collaborative visual representation of Ghosts: this time Trent has directly involved the fans in a sort of contest to find out their most inspired works. The contest is held on YouTube and the chosen user-submitted representations will be part of a virtual “film festival” and perhaps even “[...] a one-time live performance of the entire Ghosts record with your visuals involved [...]“.

I’m looking forward to see the results.

~ by ege010 on March 16, 2008.