Nine Inch Nails Gives Away New Album

Digital giveaway translates into hard cash for Nine Inch Nails frontman

(NEWSER) - The music industry could learn a few things from Trent Reznor, whose decision to go independent and give away music digitally might earn him more money than sticking with a label—not to mention creative freedom, Jackson West writes on Valleywag. Labels are now starting to realize they need to move beyond traditional album sales, too. More»

Trent Reznor's self-released album cements new business model

(NEWSER) - The early success of Nine Inch Nails' experiment on the Internet may mean that Armageddon is one step closer for the recording industry, writes Tony Sclafani for MSNBC. The industrial rock powerhouse released a new album on its website Sunday without a label's support, and the response has been both lucrative and overwhelming. More»

Company aims to have service up before iTunes Match

(NEWSER) - Google is pushing further into the entertainment business with an online music store that it aims to have up and running within weeks, sources tell the New York Times . Music industry execs say the MP3 store will probably be linked to Google's Music Beta cloud service. Google wants to have the store open before Apples iTunes Match service is rolled out, the sources say, although it's not clear whether the company will be able to cut deals with record labels in time. More»

Free All Music is innovative, but still might not work

(NEWSER) - A new site thinks it has the answer the music industry’s woes: Free All Music will allow users to download a high-quality mp3 with no copy restrictions in exchange for watching a 15-second video ad of their choosing. The site then takes a user’s handle and uses it to produce another ad, for third-party sites, that announces what the user downloaded and who sponsored it. Users may download 15 mp3s a month—and perhaps more if Free All Music eventually sells more sponsorships. More»

Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, incestuous Gainsbourgs make list

(NEWSER) - With MTV's Video Music Awards set for Sunday (not that you'll see many videos on the channel these days), Oddee.com takes a look at some of the form’s most controversial:

• Closer, Nine Inch Nails: To go along with the explicitly sexual lyrics, this 1994 piece includes a monkey fixed to a cross, a nude woman with a crucifix mask, and a diagram of a vulva. And it’s in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
• Jeremy, Pearl Jam: The 1992 video depicts a boy who, after being teased, heads into a classroom with a gun; MTV banned it after the 1999 Columbine massacre.