Nate Lanxon
Nate Lanxon is CNET UK's Senior Editor of News and Features, and covers every aspect of technology for Crave. He also enjoys popular-science books, obscure Japanese animation and plays 'technical metal' on the drums, whatever that is.
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Wednesday 7 May 2008, 5:40pm
NIN give away another album. How many more?
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is a free album. After offering part of their instrumental album Ghosts I-IV for free, alongside various paid-for ways to buy the album in full, Nine Inch Nails have just released their new album The Slip completely free, making us wonder how many new albums NIN have actually recorded.
On the band's official Web site, front man Trent Reznor said to fans, "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years -- this one's on me."
The album will be released on CD and vinyl in July.
More interesting still is that the Creative Commons-licensed album is not just being given away as MP3 downloads -- it's also being offered in lossless FLAC and Apple Lossless format, along with hardcore audiophile 24-bit/96KHz waveform. The MP3 version can simply be downloaded from the NIN Web site, while lossless versions are distributed via BitTorrent.
BitTorrent is usually seen as a pirate's tool for downloading media illegally. But it's not just that. The Slip is a welcome promotion of the legitimate use of Bram Cohen's protocol, and may see ISPs come under fire for unfairly throttling the download speeds of Internet users who utilise the system to acquire Reznor's new album. -Nate Lanxon
Articles by Nate Lanxon
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