Nine Inch Nails’s Ghosts I-IV earned 1.6 million in it’s first week.

Trent Reznor reported that the earnings came from 781,917 downloads - including both the free and paid transactions. If Trent had went the traditional route of distributing this album through a record label the album would have cost fans closer to $15 each, while he would have earned less than $1.00 on each unit sold. Here’s a comparison:

Through A Record Company
$15.00 album X 10% in artist royalties = $1.00 per unit sold

Self distribution
$5.00 album X 100% in artist royalties = $5.00 per unit sold

In this case, the self distribution model is better for the fans and the musicians - it only leaves out the labels. It’s uncertain whether Reznor is a music industry anarchist or just a clever entrepreneur, but what is clear is that he is no longer collecting paychecks. Reznor owns a business and not a job.

The Charlatans UK released their tenth studio album You Cross My Path as a free download from the English based radio station XFM’s website.

Frontman Tim Burgess explains “We always knew this album was gonna be given away for free, even before we started writing so we wanted to make it the best album we’ve ever made. This isn’t a case of left over tracks and b-sides, we wanted to give our fans a quality record.”

The physical release date originally scheduled to be released this month has been pushed back to June 3, 2008.

Yesterday Nine Inch Nails released their latest album “Ghosts I-IV” under a Creative Commons license. The album is 100% DRM-free, available in a wide range of formats (Apple Lossless, MP3, CD, Vinyl, DVD, Book) and can be instantly downloaded from www.ghosts.nin.com for a suggested $5 donation (meanwhile, the first nine tracks are available for free download from the website).

I believe that releasing music under a CC License will be a growing trend in the next year. The benefits of accumulating a larger fan base far outweighs any miniscule album sale profits.

By forfeiting the exclusive ‘right to copy’, NIN is allowing this new album to penetrate the market faster, and on a larger scale. Under Creative Commons he still has the right to profit from selling physical copies of his work, he will still be credited for his work, and still be paid if his music is used for commercial purposes. Again, the main difference is that people on the internet can share his music without breaking the law (aka. getting RIAA-ed)

As an added benefit, being an early adopter for a Creative Commons License is worth millions in marketing for NIN: it’s currently the #1 most dugg story; and likely to be mentioned by every other blogger citing the end of the music industry.

Is music a product or a service? At the moment it is both - and I think that is where the problems lies. When a product can be transmitted as information via the web it is no longer necessary for it to embody the packaging it may have once thrived inside. In the case of music, distributing music over the web is here to stay because it is much more efficient.

This same transformation has already occurred with newspapers and hand written letters. So it would be easy to argue that music has now become an internet service similar to The NY Times Online and Gmail.

One of the side effects having content on the internet is that it can be used by others without the creator’s permission. It becomes a public good. Just like the roads we drive our cars on, it is difficult to restrict something we all have access to.

Currently, songwriters take in 8¢ per song every time music is purchased (and most often the publisher will take half). Now the RIAA and record labels are pushing to lower that rate to 6¢ per song.

Songwriters fighting for fair wages? This scenario reminds me a bit of the television writers’ strike going on right now, where those involved are fighting for a residual 0.6% per DVD sold (up from 0.3%). The Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers has refused to meet the writer’s needs and left TV viewers with fragmented television series.

The difference I see between these two groups is that TV writers need the producers. Not surprisingly, producing a television show involves a much larger budget than producing a song. It takes a great effort from the studios to orchestrate the cast, sets, and equipment – and to fund the project.

But music is different. Music production and distribution costs have dropped dramatically in the past 10 years. If anything, the labels should pass some of this savings on to the musicians and songwriters. Instead they are siphoning pennies from the writers.

The RIAA will have a difficult time justifying a need for cutting the royalty rate. As a songwriter, I see this as a last stand – and reason to cut the RIAA out of your life all together.

The Flashbulb, aka Benn Jordan, became so outraged when he discovered that iTunes was effectively pirating his music, that he uploaded copies of his latest album to BitTorrent. TorrentFreak caught up with Benn to learn more about the decision to stop distributors and ‘coked-up label reps’ from getting all the cash.read more | digg story

It’s pledge season for NPR once again. Chris Anderson’s shares his thoughts on funding specific NPR shows - rather than the entire station - and how this trend may be stirring in other areas of our media.  Read This Story

Music is indeed moving toward free. This idea has been further illustrated this week by Last.fm and Qtrax, who have announced that they are now making millions of major label tracks available for free.

The Good

• Last.fm is paying artists each time a track is played.
• Qtrax allows downloads so that you can play the music offline.

The Bad

• The DRM permits us from playing these tracks on some devices.
• The labels still own the copyright.

If music is going to be free (as in freedom) musicians need to keep control of their copyright. New musicians should retain distribution rights; that way the musicians (not the labels) decide how their music is used. And also, why should the labels get a cut of this deal?

This is a step in the right direction. But let’s not fall to our knees just yet, because music will be free when the musicians control it.

CD sales are down, major label revenues are sliding, and the music industry looks to be in recession. But music isn’t dying; it’s changing.read more | digg story

As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website. Additionally, Last.fm will start paying artists directly for the music they stream!

read more | digg story