NINE INCH NAILS Launches Film Festival; New Album Earns $1.6 Million
March 14, 2008The Pulse of Radio reports: NINE INCH NAILS is launching an online film festival showcasing short films made by fans to accompany music from the new NINE INCH NAILS album, "Ghosts I – IV". According to a press release, the NINE INCH NAILS channel on YouTube, which went live on Thursday (March 13h),will begin accepting submissions immediately through May 1. Music from "Ghosts I – IV" will be available for filmmakers starting on April 1 through YouTube's AudioSwap channel. Submissions will be personally reviewed by Trent Reznor, who will host a festival featuring the best entries at a later date.
Reznor released "Ghosts I – IV" online on March 2. The two-hour collection of 36 untitled instrumental tracks was made available in various high-quality DRM-free formats at different price levels. According to a press statement, a total of 781,917 copies of the project were transacted at NIN.com in the first week of release, including paid and free downloads, plus pre-orders for physical editions of the set. The total gross earned was reported as $1,619,420.
By contrast, the top-selling CD on the Billboard album chart this week, a new record from country star Alan Jackson, sold 119,000 copies.
Reznor's announcement of the sales figures was in contrast to RADIOHEAD, who did not release sales figures for their "pay-what-you-want" digital version of their latest effort, "In Rainbows". Reznor will not, however, release traditional sales figures to SoundScan, which provides numbers for the Billboard chart.
The expensive "ultra-deluxe" limited edition of "Ghosts I - IV" sold out almost instantly despite a steep $300 price tag. A digital version is available for five dollars, along with a $75 limited edition "deluxe" package. A $10 double CD version and a $39 vinyl edition will be available at U.S. retail on April 8.
Meanwhile, Gigwise.com reported that Reznor criticized RADIOHEAD for the "low quality" of the download version of "In Rainbows", saying, "What they did was a cool thing; I think the way they parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd. But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale."
Comments Disclaimer And Information