Nine Inch Nails give away gig footage in 400GB torrent
By John Lister
Nine Inch Nails has released raw footage of three concerts without charge through a torrent file, encouraging fans to watch and even edit the footage. However, the high definition footage weighs in at a whopping 405GB.
Frontman Trent Reznor claimed on the band’s site that the footage comes from “a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives” and notes “Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent.” Of course, that’s either a joke or a legal necessity as the release is clearly fully authorized.
Given the size of the recordings, the idea isn’t that every fan download and watch the entire footage, though no doubt some will do so. Instead the footage is out there for enthusiasts to mix camera angles and produce their own versions of live tracks to put up on sites such as YouTube. The video clips even come with templates for easy editing in Final Cut Pro.
The band has a track record of subverting the traditional music business model: its newest album, The Slip, is free to download from the band’s site (in return for your e-mail address), though a paid-for physical copy will be available later.
And previous release Ghosts was the best-selling album on Amazon last year. That’s partly down to the $5 price, but is still surprising given it was also available to download without charge from the band’s site, and even given an official release on peer-to-peer networks.
Given this news, and the success of Radiohead’s last album (distributed through a ‘pay what you like’ download), you might think this is proof that the honor system works and fans will be happy to voluntarily pay for good music.
The problem is that the success stories involve major artists with an established track record. The recent Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead releases may make a profit, but it’s unlikely they could cover the costs of building the bands to international stardom in the first place.
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