The album, which became available for download just after 3 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, appears to represent the first time a superstar act has distributed an entire album without any opportunity for people to pay for it. Its release comes two months after the band issued the instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” and allowed fans to obtain a portion of it for free or the entire recording for $5. Before that, the British rock act Radiohead broke with convention by offering its 2007 album, “In Rainbows,” online under a tip-jar-style setup in which people could name their own price — including zero.

Mr. Reznor’s new offer could serve as another test of how the easy availability of free music online affects subsequent CD sales and other money-making opportunities. “The Slip” will not be sold on CD or vinyl until at least July, according to representatives for the band. But the free digital version could stoke interest for Nine Inch Nails’ recently announced concert tour. Already, radio stations have shown interest in “Discipline,” a song from “The Slip” that was released about two weeks ago.

This is still very much an experiment and I reckon one that is ultimately going to fail. While NIN has probably net profited from the release of Ghosts, probably why releasing The Slip for free was done, it still remains to be seen if it maintains or grows his revenue stream from the subsequent tour and follow on releases. The thing that's been missing from this whole shebang is what record companies do best: promotion.

Most of the promotion that's been gotten for this album has been its novel approach. But what happens when it's the 60th album to be released this year in this fashion? NIN won't even make a blip on the newsfeeds, especially because it's not a MoR pop act. One thing that I noticed during With Teeth and even Year Zero was that I heard singles and saw promotion. Survivalism was in constant rotation on Sirius, Music Choice, MTV, and all over iTunes. Same for the other singles from With Teeth. I also saw billboards at HMV and Virgin in a few major markets (NYC, Chicago, and Detroit). But I haven't seen jack shit for Ghosts and haven't heard Discipline on any outlet. I don't expect to hear material from Ghosts on radio outlets because it is decidedly non-radio friendly.

That's not to say that gimmicks like the promotion for Year Zero aren't effective. But it's a very crowded marketplace and not every artist can pull something like that together for every release. The point being that the system that's currently used by the labels, for all its trappings (ahem... payola), WORKS. It gets product to the table and pushes sales and that's ultimately what an artist needs to break through the noise (no pun intended). If you go independent, and you're not investing a good chunk of your proceeds into marketing and promotion (just like a label that's fully supportive of your release will be doing), then you are playing a zero sum game. Probably a negative sum game, because ultimately only your fans will buy the product, and that's a shrinking market for every artist unless you are delivering LCD hits time after time. Also, this can only be possible for an established artist. I do not see a way that a new artist can break in this fashion. They simply won't get enough exposure in a mass space long enough to build a fan base.

I'm no fan of the patron model used by the record labels. BUT, if this is really going to work, NIN and Coldplay and others need to make sure that they are working the promotion angle enough to ensure success. The economics of which I can't see working for an artist on a case by case basis. How are you going to compete with the economies of scale that the label offers for these services? It's like building my own little data center in a wiring closet compared to IBM.

Nine Inch Nails Album Is Free Online

We used to miss too many shows -- we'd hear about them after tickets they sold out, or worse, read about them in the Globe the day after. Maybe even in the Metro (oh, the shame!)

So we wrote a program to download all the area club listings daily, search for bands we liked, then send out email. That's Tourfilter. And it's not just for us, it's for everyone (chances are, we're in your city or coming soon).

In short, Tourfilter has tools to:

* Track as many bands as you can think of and send you an email when a show is announced.
* Combine your friends' calendars into one place.
* Listen to tens of thousands of MP3 and RealAudio tracks by bands with upcoming shows.
* Browse recent music blog listings, organized by band.
* Get show updates via RSS and iCal.

Since Ticketmonster's "email upcoming shows" function NEVER works, I think I will become a big fan of tourfilter. PLUS iCal support! HELLS YEAH!!!

tourfilter = about damn time

Anthony Wilson, the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands, has died of cancer.

If you've ever listened to Joy Division, New Order, or the Happy Mondays, (or listened to white pop music for the last 15 years) or you've ever been to a rave or club in the last 20 years, you have this man to thank. He literally helped found a whole genre of music, but impacted culture in incalculable ways. For a great primer, see 24 Hour Party People.

Anthony Wilson dies from cancer, or my friends, we are getting older...

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reactable

The Police are merrily going around rubbing other bands' noses in it at the moment. Even though it basically consisted of a 56-year-old man, a 55-year-old man and a 65-year-old man playing a song about a prostitute, The Police's big comeback performance was the highlight of The Grammys, and that's not something you could say about other newly-reformed bands like James or Crowded House.

While I'm wondering if I somehow wrote this article without remembering, I'm very happy that this has happened. Yes, Sting is a pretentious asshole, but being someone who's loved this band since its formation and never got to see them in concert growing up, I'll be able to be one of those tired cliche ridden aging hipsters who's willing to overpay too much for a ticket to relive their youth. YEAH!

The Police To Be Vastly Smug Around The World This Year

The Police will reunite to perform at this year's Grammys ceremony, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday.

Just get it over with and announce a tour. Do it for the fans! Charge whatever you want. Just put the egos aside and DO IT!!!!

The Police to Reunite for Grammy Awards

After a year in the making... researching, number crunching, layouts, stock gathering, and lots of procrastinating, i am proud to say it is finally done.

the SUPERDEVIATION, or "spot" as it was known to some, comes now with the final title.

Death and Taxes: A visual look at where your tax dollars go.

deviantART: Death and Taxes: ... by ~mibi

"They never cared who we were," Lydon said. "They never bothered to correct the incredible fatal, bad mistakes about our legend and legacy in their museum and up until now, they've rejected our nomination for three years running, and now they want a piece of us.

"Well, guess what? Kiss this!" he said, making a rude gesture.

I am very impressed that throughout their lives, they have remained true to the punk ethic. Long live the Sex Pistols!

Sex Pistol to Rock Hall: 'Kiss this!'

Are you a hard-working research biologist waiting for your story to be told? Look no further than Allegra Goodman's new novel, which Booklist called "a timely inquiry into our society's problematic matrix of science, money, and politics."

From the book jacket:

Hailed as "a writer of uncommon clarity" by the New Yorker, National Book Award finalist Allegra Goodman has dazzled readers with her acclaimed works of fiction, including such beloved bestsellers as The Family Markowitz and Kaaterskill Falls. Now she returns with a bracing new novel, at once an intricate mystery and a rich human drama set in the high-stakes atmosphere of a prestigious research institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sandy Glass, a charismatic publicity-seeking oncologist, and Marion Mendelssohn, a pure, exacting scientist, are codirectors of a lab at the Philpott Institute dedicated to cancer research and desperately in need of a grant. Both mentors and supervisors of their young postdoctoral protégés, Glass and Mendelssohn demand dedication and obedience in a competitive environment where funding is scarce and results elusive. So when the experiments of Cliff Bannaker, a young postdoc in a rut, begin to work, the entire lab becomes giddy with newfound expectations. But Cliff’s rigorous colleague–and girlfriend–Robin Decker suspects the unthinkable: that his findings are fraudulent. As Robin makes her private doubts public and Cliff maintains his innocence, a life-changing controversy engulfs the lab and everyone in it.

With extraordinary insight, Allegra Goodman brilliantly explores the intricate mixture of workplace intrigue, scientific ardor, and the moral consequences of a rush to judgment. She has written an unforgettable novel.

You can read an excerpt at Amazon. "Intuition" earned a Starred Review from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. They wrote:

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. In another quiet but powerful novel from Goodman (Kaaterskill Falls), a struggling cancer lab at Boston's Philpott Institute becomes the stage for its researchers' personalities and passions, and for the slippery definitions of freedom and responsibility in grant-driven American science. When the once-discredited R-7 virus, the project of playboy postdoc Cliff, seems to reduce cancerous tumors in mice, lab director Sandy Glass insists on publishing the preliminary results immediately, against the advice of his more cautious codirector, Marion Mendelssohn. The research team sees a glorious future ahead, but Robin, Cliff's resentful ex-girlfriend and co-researcher, suspects that the findings are too good to be true and attempts to prove Cliff's results are in error. The resulting inquiry spins out of control. With subtle but uncanny effectiveness, Goodman illuminates the inner lives of each character, ... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

Intuition

What can you do in one second? Listening to the musical/sonic concoctions of sound designers, composers, musicians, piano tuners, and the odd stand-up comic faced with the time restriction, a lot. Asked to "create digital music" in honor of the leap second added to correct atomic clocks New Year's Eve, you responded with an astounding array of miniature compositions. They're a reminder that in an age of sprawling evening-length music and all-night DJs, a tiny musical morsel can be just as pleasurable. They also prove that the 23 seconds added to our clocks since the early 70s to account for slowing Earth rotation are no small matter.

Leap Sounds: 1-Second Music for the Leap Second