NIN gets (even more) creative…

Yesterday, I saw on Digg that Nine Inch Nails had released a digital album called “Ghosts I-IV” for $5. So, I bought it.

However, I don’t think anyone realized how popular this album was going to be…

When I got home to download the tracks, the site had crashed from too many users. So, I had to wait until the morning to download the music (which took 45 minutes… ugh). Short story… the album is still not on my iPod.

As I was waiting for the album to download, I got a chance to look around the Nine Inch Nails web site, and I was impressed. Trent Reznor released this album with a Creative Commons license and encouraged people to remix the music. And, he created an area on the site for users to post the remixes.

This is a great strategy… not only any I spending more time on the NIN web site to hear these remixes, but I’m more engaged with the product (I hate to equate anything Trent creates to “product”, and I apologize profusely).

If I love a product and stay engaged with it, you can be pretty sure I’ll continue to spend money… not because I am forced to, but because I WANT to. Every company should hope they can find customers that enjoy giving them money.

P.S. – Here’s a great New York Times article on NIN’s innovative business model for “Ghost I-IV”.