Let's throw the obvious junk out of here and get to the good stuff: file-sharing is bad, it's illegal (to be specific, the copyright infringement is illegal). That being said, and without a re-hash of the Napster and Kazaa case histories, let's move on to some of the interesting aftermath of it all.
I've never met a peer of my generation that has never been a peer of some form of file-sharing, whether it be back in the old days of Audio-Satellite, or in the great exodus to Limewire after the fall of larger file-sharing networks; and many more still use these older, spyware-infested applications to get their constant music and movie fix. Some users became smarter, and sought “safe” practice through the use of private BitTorrent trackers to keep their activity out of the public eye (I say “safe” with some skepticism). The growth and prevalence of piracy almost makes it seem that there will be a generation of pirates that will never buy an album for years; the RIAA would hate to believe of the possibility, but I think their situation is only getting worse. Now, a handful of high-profile bands are experimenting and marketing to the pirate community with a new approach to selling a product.

Radiohead, in October of last year, released their first label-free album, called In Rainbows. Although their album has received overwhelming praise from fans and critics, their distribution plan was equally exciting: you choose the price. In a daring move, the band offered the full album exclusively online, through a download from their website, with a blank space where you'd expect the total. Some fans spoke online through blogs and podcasts about how great it is to be given the choice, the responsibility in giving their music a price-tag. Consumers now had the opportunity to pay for what they felt the album was worth, and the movement became popular instantly (one report estimates over 1.2 million downloads within the first day)! This opportunity has since been retracted by Radiohead as the album moved into physical sales; this prompted skeptics to believe that the project was hardly profitable for the band , but as front-man Yorke pointed out in an interview with Wired: “In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net.” He was quick to include the fact that EMI reserved the profits from the digital sales of their past albums, ain't that a bitch?

Although Radiohead approached the issues of piracy indirectly, another group of artists decided to aim straight for the file-sharing community: Nine Inch Nails. The band released an instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV, with a tier or level-based strategy for profit. Of the album's 36 tracks, the first nine were made freely available online through the NIN website, where the entire album is free to listen through a streaming audio player. In anticipation of the overwhelming internet traffic the website would experience, the band officially uploaded the free tracks to the popular BitTorent piracy tracker The Pirate Bay in order to bypass any distribution issues. If the listener cared to purchase their work, then they'd be given five options:
+The free download of the first nine tracks.
+The entire album through a digital download, for $5.
+The physical 2-disc album set, for $10.
+A 'Deluxe Edition' which includes the 2-disc album, a DVD of the album in multi-track format, and a BluRay disc of the album in high-definition audio, all for $75.
+An 'Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition' that includes the above-mentioned Deluxe Edition, a four-LP set of Ghosts I-IV, and two photo-books with art associated with the album. Each one of these sets are personally autographed by front-man Trent Reznor, and limited to a production of only 2500. They have since sold out, and were priced at $300 each.

For anybody that purchased the physical options, they were given the opportunity to immediately download the album before their orders shipped, so that they could enjoy the music while waiting. Overall, I believe this is an extremely profitable business strategy (basic math tells me that the limited edition brought in $750k), and the choices given to the consumer are still diverse and plentiful. This seems to be a well planned and executed album release.
And guess what: Nine Inch Nails just did it again, and I mean right when I'm about to post this they just put up another new album for free. It's called The Slip, and by using an email address you have full access to this brand new piece of work. They're even offering it in a high-definition bitrate that masses the entire collection in 1.2GB. Damn, check it out at NIN.com.

It's an honor for me, personally, to be a part of both of these releases. I had downloaded In Rainbows from Radiohead for free, giving them their first chance to impress me; it has since made me a fan of their work, and a supporter of whatever project they will pursue next. For some time, I shared the free nine tracks of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV through BitTorrent trackers worldwide, considering that the data was safe since it came directly from the source, the band. After experiencing both of these releases, I am excited to support the next band that decides to risk a similar move, whether or not they are long-time headliners, or just a young and daring group. Wouldn't you do the same?

The lead image was taken by Michell Zappa, and used under the rights of a Creative Commons License.