Nine Inch Nails the Latest Artist to Give It Away for Free
03. Mar, 2008 | by Jane |
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More and more artists, be they writers or musicians, are giving away their product for free in digital form, in hopes of driving physical sales. (Look at the related articles on the right to see more examples) Nine Inch Nails is the latest to jump on this bandwagon.
Their newest album ‘Ghosts I-IV’ and its 36 track record can be downloaded as of today.
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Just an FYI – You can get the first 9 tracks of this album for free, but if you want all 36 tracks it’s running $5. Still an incredible bargain if you like their music, but the entire album isn’t free.
I think Radiohead something similar to this a while back when they released In Rainbows independently. Their new album was free to download, with the hope that users pay by the honor system, paying what they thought the value was. My sister (who follows the music industry) reported back that the average amount “paid” was a relatively low amount, less than the average CD price. She wasn’t sure if it garnered new fans, or if it bolstered CD sales when the hard copy CD was available (1/1/08), or if it sold more concert tickets.
From my sister, who went for the $10 download (which includes two cds upon release in April):
I don’t have any way to gage NIN fans, so it’s not clear to me if the “free” download sold more albums or not.