Nine Inch Nails release album under a Creative Commons licence

US American musician Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails project has released its newest album on the internet under a Creative Commons licence. The Ghosts I-IV album is available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike licence. That means that the work can be copied, distributed and made publicly available. The music can also be modified. In any case, the name of the rights holder has to be mentioned, the work cannot be used for commercial purposes, and it can only be distributed under the conditions of the original licence.

On the project's website, the album is offered in different versions, including a free download of nine of the total of 36 tracks. The nine songs are made available in a DRM-free MP3 file, encoded at 320kbit/s, and zipped for download. It also includes a PDF with an additional 40 pages of material about the album and extras, such as desktop backgrounds and icons.

The download for all 36 songs costs $5; this package is also available in the Amazon.com MP3 shop. The two-CD set costs $10. There is also a Deluxe Edition Package with two audio CDs and a data CD with the pieces in a variety of digital formats for $75. Those who don't mind spending more can pay $300 for the Ultra-deluxe Limited Edition Package that contains four vinyl LPs, among other things.

In October of last year, after several years, Nine Inch Nails' contract with Interscope expired. Later, a remix album called Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D was released. Interscope also reserved the right to release a greatest hits album at an unspecified time.

Project initiator Reznor appeared before the crowd at one of his concerts in Sydney with a call to steal music. Before that, he had apparently complained that prices for music in Australia were too high. Now he has chosen a course similar to the one taken by the British band Radiohead last October. Two months before releasing its CD in January, that band let visitors to its website decide for themselves how much a download of the latest album should be worth.

(trk)