This guy is a fucking genius.

First: the latest NIN CD was created using thermochromism technology. After playing it once, the colour (that’s right there’s a u in colour) changes. Watch for yourself.

Second: translate the binary on the back and it reveals the location to a secret website with an additional NIN track and some thoroughly entertaining media/stories.

Third: he releases 3 songs in multi-track GarageBand/Logic format, allowing for musicians/computer audio nerds around the world to play. I’ve never even heard of another major artist doing something like that.

Fourth: he actually uploaded tracks from his own CD to the notorious (for having vast quantities of ‘illegal’ material) bittorrent site, The Pirate Bay. I think that move alone has made him the #1 most hated man @ the RIAA headquarters.

Talk about bucking trends… My level of respect for the guy has skyrocketed in the last few weeks.

Note to the cynics: Yes, this certainly could all be chalked up to a very unique marketing campaign. Yes, record labels will also profit from this move (as many people are buying his latest CD to simply support the four things I outlined above). But if other ‘major’ artists follow in his footsteps, it’s ultimately us as consumers who win.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Artists, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.