A while ago when their new Ghosts came out I downloaded their Ghost I for free and enjoyed it. It’s in my playlist in Itunes. And today I heard the songs playing again and I was like, damn .. this is good. So I decided to go ahead and get the full shebang.
I went ahead and purchased the $5 download. I do not believe in audio on CD’s anymore, so no use getting the $10 or $75 package. I would really like the $75 edition which has a cool looking cover and bluray etc, but .. I have no bluray player and again, not interested in listening to music on a CD – it would just be a collectors thing.
I noticed they are under non-commercial share creative commonse license (http://ghosts.nin.com/main/faq) and could just of course torrent it. But I like what they are doing, and just as with Radiohead I support their fresh approach on digital media, and placed an order.
They support PayPal, which is great. So I am now listening to the Apple Lossless 600MB files from Ghost I – IV, and loving it. I would have paid $25 for this too. Why? Because they make good quality music. They have the right idea. And I am free to move it around my systems, let my friends listen to it. And because it is high quality download. Easy access (directly from their site without going through hoops) and comes in various flavors.
I am not saying this is the business model for everybody; obviously you need a music label to get support, advertising, and what not. Something NiN used in the past to become big; and newcomers who use this model now won’t get the same success. That said; the approach to dealing with music (digital media) in todays age is the right one. I fully support it and I think it at least sends out a signal that when you think about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and who your audience is, and less about the chrome on your Mercedes and not pay the artist who made the content that makes you rich what they deserve, that a lot more can be accomplished. I love it how simple it is to get legal music for an affordable price from iTunes, from Amazon, from Artists official web sites, etc.
Worth my $5.