Nine Inch Nails Gives Away Another Free Album

Trent Reznor introduces his latest album, The Slip, with a note that reads, "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years -- this one's on me."

He means it. The album is available for free in what could be the perfect array of digital formats: MP3, lossless (FLAC or Apple) or 24-bit, 96-kHz WAV files that sound better than the CD would have, if Reznor had bothered to release one yet. Vinyl and CD versions will go on sale in July, according to the Nine Inch Nails site.

Not only is The Slip available for free, but it was releasedunder the Creative Commons "attribution noncommercial share-alike"license. A note on the NIN site says: "We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc."

The MP3 version of the album is available as a direct download from a server, while the larger files (lossless andhigh-resolution) are available as torrent downloads. All versions comewith a printable PDF with the album cover, the track listing and artworkfor each track. The liner notes list the release dateas January 2008, but aside from "Discipline" and "Echoplex" (.mp3) none of thesongs have been previously released.