Nine Inch Nails releases new album online for free

Nine Inch Nails was offering its new album through its website on Monday morning -- for nothing.

The 10-track record, called "The Slip," is available in its entirety in several formats -- including MP3 and high-quality, "lossless" audio compression options like FLAC -- via a link on NIN.com. All of the formats come free of digital rights management.

In a post on the website, the band's leader, Trent Reznor, said simply, "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years -- this one's on me."

This is the first time Nine Inch Nails has made a new album available completely and exclusively for free as a digital download. In March, the group released nine songs from its instrumental album "Ghosts I-IV" for free on the site, with the full 36 tracks costing 5 U.S. dollars.

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.

Nine Inch Nails sold more than 10 million albums in the U.S. between 1992 and 2007. But they have been outspoken critics of the music industry and the price of CDs.

Reznor has attacked his former record label Universal for "ripping off" fans, and once told a crowd to "steal, steal and steal some more".

The band's deal with Universal has now ended, but "The Slip" will still be coming out on CD and vinyl in July and will use traditional brick-and-mortar distribution, Reznor said.

Via xinhuanet.com