The album, which became available for download just after 3 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, appears to represent the first time a superstar act has distributed an entire album without any opportunity for people to pay for it. Its release comes two months after the band issued the instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” and allowed fans to obtain a portion of it for free or the entire recording for $5. Before that, the British rock act Radiohead broke with convention by offering its 2007 album, “In Rainbows,” online under a tip-jar-style setup in which people could name their own price — including zero. Mr. Reznor’s new offer could serve as another test of how the easy availability of free music online affects subsequent CD sales and other money-making opportunities. “The Slip” will not be sold on CD or vinyl until at least July, according to representatives for the band. But the free digital version could stoke interest for Nine Inch Nails’ recently announced concert tour. Already, radio stations have shown interest in “Discipline,” a song from “The Slip” that was released about two weeks ago.
This is still very much an experiment and I reckon one that is ultimately going to fail. While NIN has probably net profited from the release of Ghosts, probably why releasing The Slip for free was done, it still remains to be seen if it maintains or grows his revenue stream from the subsequent tour and follow on releases. The thing that's been missing from this whole shebang is what record companies do best: promotion. Most of the promotion that's been gotten for this album has been its novel approach. But what happens when it's the 60th album to be released this year in this fashion? NIN won't even make a blip on the newsfeeds, especially because it's not a MoR pop act. One thing that I noticed during With Teeth and even Year Zero was that I heard singles and saw promotion. Survivalism was in constant rotation on Sirius, Music Choice, MTV, and all over iTunes. Same for the other singles from With Teeth. I also saw billboards at HMV and Virgin in a few major markets (NYC, Chicago, and Detroit). But I haven't seen jack shit for Ghosts and haven't heard Discipline on any outlet. I don't expect to hear material from Ghosts on radio outlets because it is decidedly non-radio friendly. That's not to say that gimmicks like the promotion for Year Zero aren't effective. But it's a very crowded marketplace and not every artist can pull something like that together for every release. The point being that the system that's currently used by the labels, for all its trappings (ahem... payola), WORKS. It gets product to the table and pushes sales and that's ultimately what an artist needs to break through the noise (no pun intended). If you go independent, and you're not investing a good chunk of your proceeds into marketing and promotion (just like a label that's fully supportive of your release will be doing), then you are playing a zero sum game. Probably a negative sum game, because ultimately only your fans will buy the product, and that's a shrinking market for every artist unless you are delivering LCD hits time after time. Also, this can only be possible for an established artist. I do not see a way that a new artist can break in this fashion. They simply won't get enough exposure in a mass space long enough to build a fan base. I'm no fan of the patron model used by the record labels. BUT, if this is really going to work, NIN and Coldplay and others need to make sure that they are working the promotion angle enough to ensure success. The economics of which I can't see working for an artist on a case by case basis. How are you going to compete with the economies of scale that the label offers for these services? It's like building my own little data center in a wiring closet compared to IBM. Nine Inch Nails Album Is Free Online | 
