NIN Confirms Uploads to Public and Private Torrent Sites
The acceptability of P2P took another big step forward over the weekend, as accounts claiming to be ‘the official profile for NIN’ appeared on a number of torrent sites, including The Pirate Bay and the private trackers What.cd and Waffles.fm. NIN has now confirmed that these accounts indeed belong to the band.
The account that was used to upload the torrent, linked to in yesterday’s piece, was from a user called ‘NINofficial‘, and included a text about the release. Similar accounts, named NIN, appeared on the private music trackers what.cd and waffles.fm on Friday, and uploaded the same torrent.
Uploads to torrent sites, claiming to be from the owners of the material are not unheard of, but are also not common. When it has happened, it’s been to public sites, and generally a hoax, which makes people all the more wary when accounts appear, claiming to be ‘official’ or from the people behind it.
However, TorrentFreak has verified that the accounts in question, ‘NIN’ on both waffles and what, and ‘NINOfficial’ on The Pirate Bay, are indeed accounts belonging to the band’s representatives.
“last night our website had to go down for maintenance for a little while due to the incredible amount of traffic and downloads, and we linked directly to our Pirate Bay torrent as a way for people to get the music while we were offline.” Rob Sheridan, Art Director for NIN told TorrentFreak, adding “I noticed our official torrent of Ghosts I was in the top 10 of all torrents on The Pirate Bay last night.”
“We use torrents ourselves, and we know that most NIN fans are tech-savvy and familiar with file-sharing, so we want to experiment with ways to use that to our advantage, instead of making the mistake of trying to fight or ignore it, as so many artists and labels do.” NIN’s Rob Sheridan added. Many sites, too are willing to work with artists with programs such as Mininova’s content distribution platform and What.cd’s ‘Vanity House’.
It is not sure how NIN got invited to both OiNK replacements what.cd and waffles.fm, however, since Trent Reznor himself admitted to be a frequent user of OiNK, he probably signed up at the trackers from the start, and invited the official NIN user.
Of course, not everyone gets this, some news sites have been reporting that the accounts are bogus, or that the torrents, including the official ones, are stealing. An admin of one of the private tracker did have a sobering comment though “It doesn’t help that the full version is available as well on music torrent sites in general.”
screenshot of the official NIN profile at what.cd
Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk9)
Next: Study: Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice
88 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
confirmation is great
yay
fucking news idiots thinking it’s fake. what morons.
I didn’t know What.cd had that “Vanity House” thing. That’s really cool. It’s a section of their forums where bands can post their own albums, with descriptions and torrent links.
My biggest beef with OiNK was “no freely available music”, a rule unfriendly to artists who support filesharing… Glad to see that view changing within the torrent community.
Five bucks for the full set? I’m all over that.
THIS is what the rest of the music (and movie) industry is failing to understand. Their business model is fading, because the product is priced far beyond its value.
Well, they are about to get sued by SOMEBODY
[quote comment="303832"]Well, they are about to get sued by SOMEBODY[/quote]
Who, exactly?
P.S. The register’s now dropped a way in my estimation…
nin suck balls anyway!………..I guarantee not even 1% of the people that download it will ever purchase any of there music……..they’ll soon realise that.
Hey NIN!
If you’re reading this…
can I get a waffles/what invite? :D
@9 shh…you’ll get him banned :P
I’m not much of a music listener, but the ease of spending $5 to download 36 tracks made a nice little surprise gift for the bf. And the respect NIN is showing customers made me feel fuzzy-fluffy about it — like I did something good by spending $5 to easily and hassle-free download an album I have no intention of listening to. Really weird.
[quote]Five bucks for the full set? I’m all over that.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s an extremely great price, and it’s all going to the band, which is great.
Too bad the Register has such a low opinion of those who don’t feel like paying for a freely copyable resource.
And if anyone from the Register is reading: I’m a musician, and have never charged a red cent for performances that ain’t live, kthx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0AfdlCQidE
good for nin.
antip2pfagscandienowplz
NIN are probably getting more per purchase now than they did with the label and more purchases at that but i do agree with the “admin” it isn’t really fair having the good one with some tracks and the bad one with all tracks and to #8 just because 1% of people you know wont buy it doesn’t mean 1% of all wont these guys are leading the music industry into the future just like others (invention of vinyl/cassette tapes/cds) and you shut them down go vent at your RIAA meeting and leave and leave them to get rich
All money which goes directly to an artist or band is STEALING, as it could have gone to the music industry if they had a contract which demanded it, to support them and their starving families, and the poor of the Earth.
Hahaaa! Well now all you honest people out there can rest easy and be assured you are NOT thieves and pirates, because those thieves accusing you have no credibility left.
Btw I don’t know any NIN music, don’t want to know, don’t care, and won’t be going there for free dls.
However their policy is on the right track.
wewt! Lets hope this trend continues with other established bands & artists. They’ve got my $5 :)
ouch, RIAA must be feeling outraged and i bet they contributed to the manipulation of the media to (ridiculously) criticize music lovers who pay and want to directly help and support the artists whose music they love and feel very strongly about.
i predict more and more artists will be doing this and it is a fascinating revolution to watch. especially seeing some of the people being very deluded and crooked in the process while the ones with the right instinct prosper and are the Bill Gates of our time.
never heard your music, NIN, don’t listen to the genre, but you are helping a great cause and are one of the rare artists with the courage to stand up to the labels so you should be greatly respected for that. more artists should gather up the courage and wisdom and learn that there is a SUPERIOR distribution/promotion method out there and artists can do more than just make music but can promote themselves and becoming more profitable at the same time.
note how the media tries to make it seem totally not profitable to make the music and share it for free, making paying a choice. in the future more and more people will be buying via this medium and it will be much more profitable and much more COMFORTABLE for artists to be totally in control of everything. thats exactly how it should be.
instead the media should be encouraging people to buy music they enjoy and support artists they love directly instead of calling them retards (implicitly).
i thought that UK paper was reputable but obviously they have some fools working there by allowing that ridiculous article in their music section.
btw, $5, fuck it i’ll buy it, its only $5, i think everyone who supports p2p should buy it, its very affordable. who cares if i may not listen to it more than once (and even then maybe not completely)? the reason i’m buying is i want to send a message that THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT and this is where the PROFIT is, which is all that the corporations are concerned about. we need to all support those who support a common cause, even if you don’t particularly like the music.
the worst that can possibly happen is you “wasted” $5, and the best is you’re being part of a remarkable revolution and supporting an artist that is part of it, helping change the whole way things are done in the music industry.
i hope this message gets the point across…
tl;dr.
I’m not a HUGE NIN fan, but I’ve spent way more than five bucks on stuff I like less than Trent Reznor in my time, so that’s well spent pocket change in my book.
To those that don’t know, NIN is no longer under contract with ANY record label. NIN is fully on their own. That is how Trent is able to do this. Therefore the RIAA can’t do anything about this.
Trent has said “We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It’s licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.”
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4061815/Nine_Inch_Nails_-_Ghosts_I-IV_2008_FLAC_Lossless
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4061815/Nine_Inch_Nails_-_Ghosts_I-IV_2008_FLAC_Lossless
yo
Good for them! They will reach far more people using this modern distribution method, so even if only 1% of downloaders pay for it, the 1% is from a larger pool of listners.
Wouldnt be at all suprised if they make more money this way over the long term…
As we all know, some people will still want the physical CD as well. Perhaps a good business model would be for the band to offer to send a physical CD to anyone who wants it for an additional charge?
This would keep everyone happy (exept the record labels…nyaaaa!)
I support NiN 100%. They know how to distribute music the proper way.
I have not really listened to NIN in a couple years but just for them taking a stand and supporting P2P I am buying their album. I think it is great. I would love to see the RIAA and the blood sucking industry gone and this is the start of it.
@25
Have a look a their website. They offer Ghosts I-IV on two CDs for 10 USD.
And for the enthusiasts there are even more options to choose from, including a 300$ limited special edition with vinyls that is already sold out.
That’s the way to go NIN. I liked only a few tracks you have made over the past years, but I’ll pay you the 5$ for the download version anyway. You have my support…
Good news, glad to see more big-name artists who have first-hand experience with the exploitive labels coming around to publicly endorsing alternative distribution and, more specifically, peer-to-peer sharing.
Information wants to be free, keep moving it forward!
This is the first NiN album I’ve bought since HALO 10… respect.
http://www.sumotorrent.com/en/details/928378/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%20Ghosts%20I-IV%20%5B2008%20FLAC%20Lossless%5D%20brandnew.html
http://www.sumotorrent.com/en/details/925202/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%20Ghosts%20I-IV%202008%20320kbps%20and%20Extras%20brandnew.html
I bought the 5.00 version, not because I listen to them but to support them for what they are trying to do. That is what the industry fails to understand. I want a decent price on something that i can do with what i want - not talking about commercial use… private/personal use only
I doubt I will ever listen to it as it is not what I like but I wanted to support NIN and those who are sticking to the corporations.
the greatest thing about this is it gives the artist total control in what they choose to release. no pressure for singles to drive sales. im a big fan of nins instrumentals and tend to believe it’s what they do best. there is no way this album would ever come out if nin were still on a label
When they got my $5…
When the site went down repeatedly…
When the download link repeatedly failed to give me any more than 15MB…
When my download link finally stopped working…
When my “please help” e-mails went unanswered…
I was more than happy to download the full version from Mininova, sanctioned or not.
I want to support artists, but the failure of control and ownership in the face of freedom re-proves the concept to me that art isn’t something I PAY for - it’s something I TIP for.
We’ll be better off teaching the value of ’showing appreciation’ to kids rather than the increasingly imaginary value of ‘copyright’.
BRAVO NIN!
nufsaid..
I downloaded Ghosts on a private tracker. I like it. And 10$ for a physical 2CD Set is nothing.
This’ll be my first NIN Album.
[quote comment="303857"]nin suck balls anyway!………..I guarantee not even 1% of the people that download it will ever purchase any of there music……..they’ll soon realise that.[/quote]
They sold out of the limited edition $300 sets within hours.
I bought the $5 set - all 36 tracks in lossless FLAC.
You sir, are a moron.
Well done NIN. This Ghosts release isn’t their usual style, and I like the variety. With respect to the distribution model being explored here, all I can say is that I can’t encourage it enough. Should every band do this, then the rip off side of the music industry could be stamped out.
I want WAV or FLAC I refuse to pay for mp3’s terrible noise.
i still buy lp’s tho..
who?
You can download my debut album “MeKaNiKaLZ” for free via Mininova.
It’s composed of 20 tracks of pure electronic music going from techno to ambient, from industrial to soundtrack, from hiphop to electro to everything cool.
It’s here:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1080807
Thank you to the 5000+ peoples who already downloaded it!
And find more about me at
http://www.uber.com/icesixxx
Enjoy!
The Register should change it’s name to The Retardster.
doesn’t matter if only 1% of people buy it.
They sold out the $300 version, netting at least $750k in 1 day.
Not bad at all.
I’ve been waiting to see something like this for years. Good job, Trent and NIN.
[quote comment="303816"]fucking news idiots thinking it’s fake. what morons.[/quote]
The funny thing is if the news morons just took the time to read the pdf that came with the new release they would see it’s under a share alike license.
[quote comment="304407"]I want WAV or FLAC I refuse to pay for mp3’s terrible noise.
i still buy lp’s tho..[/quote]
The $5 option comes with FLAC…
Even if you are not a huge NIN fan, please support these guys and buy the album, even if just to gift to a friend. This is a great model and I hope many bands follow their lead. Cut out that middle man and pay the artist directly? Perfect, it’s what the online community has been asking for all the way along.
Ghosts is excellent, I love the unprocessed sound, it’s very real.
this actually makes me a bit interesting in NIN, even though I haven’t listened to them before I think I’ll give ‘em a shot – THAT is what I call great PR, and it doesn’t cost them a cent
I paid the 5 bucks and downloaded the full set from what.
I’ll give my $5 in support as well. Most of the stuff they put out lately hasn’t been to my tastes, but I liked the mood that was presented in Ghosts I.
I downloaded it from TPB and gave it a listen last night, and since the servers are back working again, I decided to grab the full download version.
Good show!
to bad about the shipping costs, now i still pay 15 euro’s or so XD
but, the costs for the shipping is higher are higher than that of the album itself so I guess that’s a good thing.
[quote comment="303857"]nin suck balls anyway!………..I guarantee not even 1% of the people that download it will ever purchase any of there music……..they’ll soon realise that.[/quote]
Yea I previewed few files & cancelled the torrent download…wht childish arrangement of music…like a kid banging on a keyboard. And $5 for whole stuf…thtz a scam to sell this subpar album. Oh! $5 free on torrent…lets support…viva la revolucion…n u buy sumthing which normally u wudnt hav.
But there torret endorsement is a positive sign. JUST CUT A GOOD ALBUM NIN. THIS ONE IS CRAP.
Thank you NIN. You are a clear, well though out idea in a wasteland where good ideas are shut down by individuals who can’t think for themselves. I paid the $5 for the download, I hope NIN sees every penny, they should be rewarded for what they do, and should be entitled to all the profits. They wrote the music, they recorded the music, they marketed the album, they distributed the album, they have the rights over THEIR own music. It’s time the ARTIST had control over their art, not some label that controls what the artist can and cannot do with his own creations.
And to think that soon, corporations will be in control of the content on the internet and other artists will not be able to follow suit. Enjoy these last few months or years of net neutrality while you can.
Everyone just has to have FLAC?
Can you hear that much of a difference between a high bitrate mp3 and flac?
Face it: At high bitrates, most of the sound lost in an mp3 is just extremely high and low frequencies that no human ear can possibly hear I bet a lot of the difference you notice is all in your head. For me, the choice is clear: I’d much rather have a 256kbs mp3 (or even better, an ogg), rather than some huge wav file or flac filling up my hard drive (I’d still pay trent the five bucks though..he seems like a nice fellow).
I do make an exception remixing the music however… Its always good to work with uncompressed audio when your editing a recording, so that you don’t loose as much quality when you compress it down.
Shame the album is a bit shit…
NIN rocks!
Great music, I’m really glad they upload their music.
thanx
It is now clear that torrents will be the future distribution medium of the 21st century. The RIAA will soon be no more! As Artists will undoubtedly neglect the middleman and produce/distribute their own material.
Posted here and elsewhere, an open letter to NIN:
[quote]
Trent. Long time fan here. Congratulations, you’ve made a monster.
Angsty?? It’s WONDERFUL. Let’s review:
1 You undercut the Russian MP3 sites.
2 You cut the obvious overhead of **AA etal legal shenanigans.
3 Pirate Bay users are scolding each other into buying the download.
4 Your website is being HAMMERED. As in what Rupert Murdoch would LOVE to happen to MySpace.
5 Each. Song. Different. Cover. It’s a little thing, and yet different / big. Kudos to (A + R).
These are all good things. I think the only bad thing is that now that I’ve bought GHOSTS [with the songfiles, extras, etc] now I want all the products — the few Halos I don’t have [like Year Zero] done up this way.
This is the way it SHOULD HAVE BEEN all along… as I said in the beginning.. you’ve made a monster.
[/quote]
from
http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options
” $300 - Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package
We have SOLD OUT of the 2500 Limited Edition Packages.”
and who said you cant make money releasing music online. wounder how many that went and bought the other offers…
The recording industry is being dragged into the 21st century by their hair, kicking and screaming. We should welcome it, rather than rag on Reznor for being angsty and whiny.
Look people, the stuff we’re after is free distribution of cultural products, right? Stuff that’s part of the culture that someone made, or was made as part of something else. Disintermediation of the traditional distribution channels is one part of the process IMO.
Also hey, could this reply box be made a little wider? We could get some quality discussion going if people were able to review just what they just wrote…
still looking for an invite for what.cd or wafflesfm… :S
email : murdoclu@gmail.com
I would love a invite to what.cd or waffles.fm
email vwfsu at hotmail.com
I was going to buy the 300 dollar delux version, but by the time I got that much money in my bank account, [10 hours later], all 2500 copies were sold out. So I settled for the 10 dollar CD set.
NIN, great work with this, however I dont think It is feasible for the entire music market. Its too ‘trendy’.
Yeah, I spent the $5 and bought the album.
Trent rocks .
I bet he gave to the OiNK fund.
This is simply amazing, and go figure Trent is the first one to do it. He is really a god among us mortals :P
Hopefully we’ll see some more high profile bands bite the bullet and post their albums online.
I know that I will buy the full album for 5$!
Viva la revolution!
I must say that the Register’s reporter seems way out of touch with what is really happening. Reznor didn’t lose “$160,000 income in the past 12 hours” at all. His band made a ton of money from the paid-for versions, and won a great deal of respect for utilizing this new business model. The pirated versions have been downloaded by people who weren’t queuing up to buy the record anyway. They wouldn’t have paid a cent no matter what price NiN set. There is the likelihood that some downloaders may like the music and then download illegal copies of previous (and better) NiN records, but even then, the only loser would be the record companies that released them. If Trent hadn’t released these recordings at such a fair price, and generated the publicity, none of these so-called “Freetards” would be downloading anything. This is why the “it’s stealing” claim is always wrong. You can’t claim someone has taken money from you if you never actually had the money guaranteed in the first place. It is outrageous that the “exclusive licences” obtained by RIAA companies are treated as a guarantee of income. Just because you put a CD on the shelves doesn’t mean we have to pay for it!
@36
it sold out in around 23 hours.
@54
I have high-quality headphones that really make the FLAC/MP3 difference noticable.
@67
I haven’t seen a single “pirated” version of this yet.
The only way to “pirate” this is if you tried to SELL it.
Those full torrents are entirely legal, even the torrent descriptions tell you why.
I just don’t have enough great things to say about this.
I think I’ve commented on the other Torrentfreak articles concerning this release but I’m really please that NIN decided to take this route. I’ve been hyping this release model for years and it’s good to see it working. It goes to show that you can still sell plenty of albums, the bands can still make plenty of money, and the fans can listen to the music for free if they so choose (more people for the live concerts anyway). This is a good business model for real bands because they can’t easily put out an album of pure bullshit and get away with it because we get to hear it first. Awesome.
Now when is the sequel to The Downward Spiral due? That’ll always be my favorite album of all time.
Same here, need an invite to waffles.fm and what.cd
constantinehb@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!
And ever since the “mysterious” leak of the closure DVDs, we all know Trent is all for file sharing… ;)
I am not a NIN fan but I am for this method of distributing music so I went and paid for the download. I was pleasantly surprised to find I really like the album. But that was just a plus for me. My whole point was to support the artists. I hope we all try to donate something anytime an artist does this. I would like nothing more than seeing the RIAA go down in flames for all the nasty things they have done and continue to do.
This album is really incredible, not what I expected but great just the same.
$5 is cool and all but if you don’t have a credit or debit card, you gotta take it for free. It’s a good idea but it has that little flaw.
Well besides the fact that I am a HUGE fan of Trent and NIN, I gave them my five bucks out of principle. This is a leap forward for musicians and listeners alike. I hope other artists pick up on this, I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen for ages.
Is somebody by any chance in a certain mood to grant me a What.cd invite?
Would be generous!
zwurk@lycos.com
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