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Nine Inch Nails depresses with a big Blue Screen of Death

Trent Reznor, brainchild behind Nine Inch Nails, sure knows how to bring an audience down. In a recent concert Reznor, apparently trying to capture the pain of modern life, let the Blue Screen of Death flash across the screen:

Somehow, that image leaves me much more depressed than NIN's classic song, "Terrible Lie":

seems like salvation come only in our dreams. i feel my hatred grow all the more extreme.... can this world really be as sad as it seems?

Apparently, the answer from Microsoft is "Yes." :-)

Are we in the '60s again?

It was just two months ago that Nine Inch Nails released its album Ghosts I-IV in multiple formats, from free nine-song download all the way up to a deluxe LP/CD/Blu-ray set. Today, the band started taking orders for free downloads of its next album, The Slip; like Radiohead did with In Rainbows, the band will subsequently release the album on CD and LP format.

Everybody's interested in the business model--has free-then-fee already gotten old?--but when's the last time you saw a band release two albums in two months? Sure, Trent's interested in making a … Read more

Nine Inch Nails releases another online album--this one's free

Declaring digital sales a success, rock veterans Nine Inch Nails have released another online album, The Slip. Unlike their last album, this one is totally free, and, according to front man Trent Reznor, is a thank-you to the band's fans.

The Slip is available from Nine Inch Nails' Web site in a number of DRM-free formats: MP3, FLAC, M4A, and WAVE. The band is also streaming the album on music social network iLike.

In March, no longer affiliated with a record label, Nine Inch Nails released its album Ghosts I-IV on its Web site. An assortment of payment options … Read more

Where it's the fiiiiinnnnaaalll countdown

EPISODE 79

Brian Brushwood stops by to ruin our lunches. He did some crazy crazy tricks like sticking a 4-and-a-half-inch nail in his nose, sticking a smaller nail in his eye, and basically taking over the show and making it awesome. The boys of the 404 might talk about iPod Touches, but who are we kidding? Magic! Listen in, or even better, watch the video later today on this post or on CNET TV's YouTube channel. We promise you WILL NOT want to miss this episode.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Will former Google exec help save the music industry?

Douglas Merrill is everything one would expect from a former Google exec.

The new chief of EMI's digital unit is a Googler down to his soul, which means he's extremely bright, a techie, and dead set against suing fans for file sharing.

"I'm passionate about data," Merrill said during a phone interview Wednesday with CNET News.com. "For example, there's a set of data that shows that file sharing is actually good for artists. Not bad for artists. So maybe we shouldn't be stopping it all the time. I don't know...… Read more

Trent Reznor: Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' promotion was 'insincere'

Radiohead's groundbreaking promotion for the album In Rainbows was "insincere" and smacked of a "bait and switch," according to Trent Reznor, leader of the group Nine Inch Nails.

Reznor made the comments during an interview with the Australia Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week.

"I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said. "But if you look at what they did, it was very much a bait and switch, to get you to pay for a MySpace quality stream as a way to promote a … Read more

Nine Inch Nails proclaims itself more open than Radiohead

Trent Reznor, the mastermind behind Nine Inch Nails, is not a fan of Radiohead's digital release of In Rainbows. Radiohead made waves with its stick-in-the-eye approach to the music labels by giving away its album on a pay-what-you-like basis.

For Reznor, that's not enough because of how Radiohead opted to release the album:

What [Radiohead] did was a cool thing; I think the way they parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd. But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 674: Pomme not Pom

EPISODE 674

Yahoo, Time Warner reportedly talk deal to thwart Microsoft http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9886157-7.html http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9886254-7.html

Gates to Google: 'Your business applications stink' http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9884752-16.html

Adobe bites its tongue after iPhone Flash jab http://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9886265-60.html

Warning: Your iPod may get you mugged http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9885873-7.html http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/ 1282422/researchers_ipods_attract_violent_crime

Is Microsoft’s ‘Singularity’ the OS of the future? http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9886184-7.html

NIN’s music experiment sells big numbers http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/05/076221… Read more

Update: NIN grosses $750,000 overnight

An update to yesterday's post: the $300 deluxe box set is sold out, according to the Nine Inch Nails Web site. The band made only 2,500 copies of the deluxe set, which means that they've already grossed $750,000. In preorders. In less than a day. That should be more than enough to cover the cost of manufacturing this set, and probably the initial runs of the lower-priced physical sets as well, plus recording costs (a high-budget major-label release might cost $100,000 to record). And since NIN is no longer on a label, every dollar of … Read more