Trent Reznor, lead vocalist and mastermind behind Nine Inch Nails, recently released his latest album, Ghosts, on his website. For $5, fans could purchase the entire instrumental album along with a high quality pdf album booklet. Reznor also offered a limited edition collector's edition of the album for $300. That version of the album sold out immediately. The revolutionary part? Trent Reznor left his record label upon the release of his last album, and so his current sales are 100% profit for him, without a record label getting any portion of the cut. Unlike Radiohead's recent endeavor, Reznor maintains that he is not doing a bait and switch on his fans. Ghosts is available from the getgo in high quality mp3 or flac (lossless) audio files. In Dreams was only available in low quality mp3s before getting a studio release later.
Reznor's venture seems to have paid off. To date, he's made $1.6 million dollars from the sales of his album. A $10 hard copy of the record will be available shortly, if fans choose to order it.
It appears that digital sales are the way of the future. How could bands continue to use alternative channels to their advantage to gain profit?
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