Posted January 7, 200916 yr Despite being partially offered as a free download in March 2008, Nine Inch Nails’ instrumental Ghosts I-IV still became the Amazon MP3 Store’s Bestselling Album of 2008, beating out Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and Death Cub for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs. The achievement is symbolic on two fronts: First, it proves — along with Radiohead’s chart-topping success of the physical release of In Rainbows — that music fans are willing to support artists even if their music is offered up at no cost. Second, it’s more evidence that Nine Inch Nails truly has one of the most rabid fanbases on the planet. (In Rainbows, for what it’s worth, ranked Number 11 on the Amazon chart.) Even though it was available for free, Ghosts I-IV was a good value even when sold on Amazon: the 36-track album went for $5. Multiple purchasing options were available when Trent Reznor first announced the record’s self-release, and after only a week Reznor revealed he made already made $1.6 million from the album. Ghosts was the first LP Reznor released after his exile from Interscope Records after a long, tumultuous relationship. Of course, Reznor constantly rewards his fanbase for their support: He practically gave away The Slip in May, and he’s currently promising fans on his Website that “a gift” is on the way. Ghosts was released under a Creative Commons license, which allows fans to remix and share the songs as long as it was for non-commercial use and they credited the original authors of the work. so basically an album that was free on the internet, had more people pay money for it than Coldplay. Pretty impressive. basically it is because Trent Reznor is God.
January 7, 200916 yr Author I didn't see a NIN album in Amazon... Isnt it on Amazon not in Amazon :kink: and were talking mp3 download version here, and US Amazon, and with a massive international act like NIN im pretty sure they will have most their albums availible.
January 7, 200916 yr Isnt it on Amazon not in Amazon :kink: and were talking mp3 download version here, and US Amazon, and with a massive international act like NIN im pretty sure they will have most their albums availible. Ah not in UK.
January 7, 200916 yr Author Ah not in UK. surely it would be on the UK one aswell. infact im gonna look now... OK they dont have Ghosts but they still have quite a few NIN albums. Anyway they should still get respected for the US sales, a free download that people then actually paid money for :o
January 14, 200916 yr Yeah but wasn't it only the first part of Ghosts that was free? Not like The Slip which was completely free
January 14, 200916 yr Author Yeah but wasn't it only the first part of Ghosts that was free? Not like The Slip which was completely free shh your making them sound not as good :kink: still impressive though? especially with part 1 being free and it being completly instrumental (which doesnt seem a popular thing these days). The Slip isnt available digitially anywhere but nin.com so it would be excempt from this chart.
January 14, 200916 yr shh your making them sound not as good :kink: still impressive though? especially with part 1 being free and it being completly instrumental (which doesnt seem a popular thing these days). The Slip isnt available digitially anywhere but nin.com so it would be excempt from this chart. it is quite impressive for an instrumental album to do so well.... But Grebo is right, it was only the first part that Trent initially put up for free.... Still, very clever marketing regardless... And The Slip was just an absolute phenomenon for music on the Internet, not only giving it away for free, but a choice of formats.... The amount of internet chatter this generated was HUGE, raising NIN's profile greatly..... I think Reznor is rather becoming the genuine pioneer and leader as far as internet music distribution is concerned..... He took it far further than Radiohead or Smashing Pumpkins did..... I believe that The Slip has had something like 2 million downloads..... This makes it a very successful project regardless of chart eligibility or not....
January 14, 200916 yr Author it is quite impressive for an instrumental album to do so well.... But Grebo is right, it was only the first part that Trent initially put up for free.... Still, very clever marketing regardless... And The Slip was just an absolute phenomenon for music on the Internet, not only giving it away for free, but a choice of formats.... The amount of internet chatter this generated was HUGE, raising NIN's profile greatly..... I think Reznor is rather becoming the genuine pioneer and leader as far as internet music distribution is concerned..... He took it far further than Radiohead or Smashing Pumpkins did..... I believe that The Slip has had something like 2 million downloads..... This makes it a very successful project regardless of chart eligibility or not.... Trent certainly seems rather a genius when it comes to internet marketing. A start being the whole Year Zero thing that went on before the album release, then Ghosts I being free, means people download, and if they like it then they will proberly want to buy the whole thing. The 'The Slip' just basically made NIN huge to... huger. And the best thing is that for the already genuine fans trent makes it special, for example the different editions of 'Ghosts' including a special signed limited signed package and so on. And then The Slip being limited to 250,000 copies worldwide for a CD release, which also included a DVD and stickers, i got my copy, even though i had the high quality download. The quality of the download is good too, unlike Radiohead who gave away p*** poor quality mp3's Trent goes out of his way to get the best quality files possible, and you can tell the difference and The Slip just sounds so good in the highest quality.
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