The Command Line

It looks like every aspect of this album was experimental, what started as an EP ended up as four volumes totaling 36 tracks.

Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing.

Like In Rainbows the album is available as a download and a premium physical package. Unlike that work, the prices are already set. The first volume, 9 tracks, is available entirely for free as high quality MP3 files without a need to provide anything other than your email address. All of the editions, free, download and pay include a download component that comes with absolutely no DRM whatsoever. For only $5 you can get all four albums as a download in the same format, plus some additional formats, including lossless ones like FLAC. Both download editions come with some extra goodies like a 40-page PDF and some desktop wallpapers and the like.

The physical editions contain many more extras along with the physical media. Each one appears to include all of the goodies of the cheaper editions so it really is more of choice of how much you want to spend. The $300 ultra deluxe, limited edition includes premiums like high quality, hard cover books and even vinyl. Given all of the extras in all of the for pay versions, I doubt anyone unwilling to pay for the more expensive editions will feel at all shorted. I am going to grab the $10 edition which seems like an absolute steal considering what you get.

Here’s the real silver lining, on the FAQ page, plain as day, the license for all editions: CC BY-NC-SA. That means as long as you don’t sell it, you are free to share and better yet, you are explicitly allowed to remix just so long as you re-distribute anything you create under the same license conditions. This license choice sets Ghosts I-IV apart from similar experiments and clearly shows that Reznor gets how sharing and enabling his fans is a reward that will no doubt encourage many to seriously consider going ahead and putting down the change for one of the non-free editions.

Note: I just got my download link and here’s a clarification. When you download you have to choose a format. The choices are great, but you have to pick one and once you do, you cannot use the link again. The advice on the page is good but having to choose is a bit of a pain. The MP3 option is the highest quality possible with that format. Either of the lossless formats can be burned to CD and re-ripped without any quality loss that you wouldn’t incur ripping a pre-produced CD, so something to think about if you are an audiophile. Since I opted for one of the CD packages, I am considering the download something to hold me over until they start shipping in April so I went with the MP3 option.

This story was originally posted on Open Media Review.