NIN Releases Garageband Sources For 3 New Tracks

Kethinov writes "Nine Inch Nails has once again released the sources in Garageband format for three of their tracks from their new album Year Zero. You can also download user-created remixes. Trent Reznor claims that he plans to release the entire album this way."

Also released in 'Generic Format'...

... for other applications, via torrent on the same page.

RIAA

I hope I'm not sued for downloading them.

BNL also has a number of remixable songs

BNL (Barenaked Ladies, from Canada) also has a number of remixable songs where you can download songs with the tracks split out [barenakedladies.com].

These cost $2.49 for each song-related set of tracks (all in WAV) but that's more than fair for a bunch of lossless tracks that you can use for whatever. Pretend to be Ed or Steve just by leaving out a track and filling in yourself!

Why don't you actually follow link...

I assume the parent simply means that these are instrumental and acapella versions of the song.

You didn't have to ASSume anything (proving out the old saying in the process), simply following the link you find this text:

For the first time in Barenaked Ladies history we are making available for download multitracks of our songs. May we introduce "Easy", "Wind It Up", "Bank Job", "Rule the World With Love", "I Can I Will I Do" and "Maybe You're Right" off our upcoming album Barenaked Ladies Are Me. It is our hope that you will remix, re-create, re-edit, re-configure, and realize what you will with these parts in coming up with your own versions. All tracks here are 16 bit 44.1kHz WAV files ready for re-mixing. Cost for all tracks of each song is $2.49. (note: all multitracks are copyrighted material)

and clicking on any song tells you something along these lines:

It is our hope that you will remix, re-create, re-edit, re-configure, and realize what you will with these parts in coming up with your own versions. All 11 tracks (5 of which are stereo - making 16 total) here are in 16 bit 44.1kHz WAV files ready for re-mixing. Cost for all tracks is $2.49 (note: all multitracks are copyrighted material).

These are real multi-tracks, with instruments and vocals split out.

It doesn't get any more re-mixable.

Why Apple?

Pardon my ignorance, but what this has to do with Apple?

(Just asking)

Re:Why Apple?

Pardon my ignorance, but what this has to do with Apple?

Well, GarageBand is a Mac-only application written by Apple.

That'd be a good place to start.

Re:Why Apple?

That's only half-correct. Apple purchased Emagic (makers of Logic, a professional audio editing program) in 2002 and GarageBand was shipped as an Apple product in 2005. So they did purchase the personnel and maybe even some of the code used in GarageBand, but the product itself was first developed and sold by Apple.

Re:Why Apple?

GarageBand is a Mac-only application bought by Apple.

If you'd ever used logic 6 (the last version made by emagic before getting bought out by apple, who later produced logic 7 and recycled the sound engine into garageband), you'd know how ridiculous you sounded just now. Granted, apple didn't write the whole app from scratch, but what they did to it was the equivilent of "pimp my app" with a '79 chevy nova. Give some credit where it's due.

Re:Why Apple?

So why are his song lyrics always along the lines of 'Oh crikey, life is horrible! Everything is dreadful! I am so depressed! Blimey, things just took an unexpected turn for the worse!' ? Are macs that bad?

Re:Why Apple?

Apple is also HOSTING these rather large garageband files for NIN:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/me_im_ not.zip [apple.com]

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/capita l_g.zip [apple.com]

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/my_vio lent_heart.zip [apple.com]

And a fourth not linked to from the NIN main page:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/nin/surviv alism.zip [apple.com]

Adblock: *.Myspace.*

I'm just gonna add *.myspace.* to adblock right now. I don't want to accidentally run into somebody's horrible remix of any of these great tracks.

I know this probably sounds like a troll...

A band puts out their music for their fans to mess around with electronically, in a common format for very inexpensive software. Pretty neat shit.

A band can sell/giveaway/whatever their music through Apple iTMS (seriously, check out The Cells; a really kickass band, not mine.) or various other people with enough bandwidth and code to be able to sell or giveaway electronic tracks.

T-shirts, posters and other merchandise can be bought on-demand from certain sites and can be made in bulk cheaper than ever before.

Remind me again: Why do we need traditional record labels anymore? I mean, sure a band might not as easily book a night at Shea Stadium without Sony, but if smaller bands were able to keep more of their money (via not having to hand 80% of it over to the label), they don't need to play places as big as Shea Stadium regularly to still live the 'rockstar' lifestyle.

I think it's very funny that a Nine Inch Nail is helping to drive The Nail into the coffin of the record industry.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

they don't need to play places as big as Shea Stadium regularly to still live the 'rockstar' lifestyle

Actually they do. Few bands/musicians are actually properly able manage this lifestyle and the majority of those who can have been around for a very long time, long enough and with enough sales to get a decent deal from the record companies. Of course there is the odd exception with someone like Robbie Williams who for some unknown reason scored a huge contract off EMI.

Much of the lifestyle you see with modern artists is funded by the record companies and when the sales dry up the cars, planes and cribs tend to vanish with them.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

I wasn't talking at all about sustaining the lifestyle, but rather getting to the point of having that lifestyle, however untenable, without the assistance of a record company.

Let's say a band can make $20,000 for performing at a 5,000 seat venue as a self-promoted event without record labels getting involved. Now, if said band were signed to a label and had to pay to play (or had to sell even more to get the record company the profits they want), the band may very well have to play a 30,000 seat arena to see the same $20,000.

They get the same amount of money either way, but since they're paying out less in scenario A, they don't need to worry about selling more seats. Then when they do get to the point of having the draw to fill Shea on their own (or have Shea approach them to do the show) they do get the super-mega-huge bucks.

I would totally expect that what you say is correct for rockstars as much as it is for anyone else: lose the market and lose your shirt.

What I'm saying is that bands are in a position now to be masters of their own destiny. The smart ones who understand the business will do very well for themselves, and those who have ten minutes of 'flash-in-the-pan' fame will be gone as quickly as they arrived.

Re:I know this probably sounds like a troll...

"Let's say a band can make $20,000 for performing at a 5,000 seat venue as a self-promoted event without record labels getting involved. Now, if said band were signed to a label and had to pay to play (or had to sell even more to get the record company the profits they want), the band may very well have to play a 30,000 seat arena to see the same $20,000."

I've worked with larger and smaller bands over the years.

The problems with physical spaces come with need for roadies, techies, engineers, insurance and everything else.

I've seen a small band go bankrupt for a single concert that goes badly because of poor planning and the idea that they can do things cheaper and make more money. Hell, I've seen a multimillion dollar festival I was once involved with go bankrupt because the board decided not to go with weather insurance. Sure, they would have doubled their profits if things had gone well without it, but the director who signed his name to a personal loan ended up losing his house.

I have to say, my career with the music industry as both a labeled artist as well as a consultant / hired gun, I never found anything unfair. It was all up front to what they will take and what risks they assume for you. Working in tech, I know the year I did as a technical on-call consultant, my company that did nothing but take calls took 50% of my take home...and only later did I find out they were charging a fee to the businesses as well. This is a common complaint in the field. AND I had to be bonded...they took absolutely no risk.

But a band playing to a 5000 large audience or a 30k one? Who cares if they make $20k for both. The first one will require a hell of a lot more work and coordination. I have done work as a production director in the past (its amazing how tech project management skills fit right into this area) and I know others in my field have charged $20k for a single night because of the coordination involved (I've done the bigger stuff under the auspices of charity, so I get a check that I turn right back in, though I've seen others that walk away with these checks and never look back).

The fact is, the band that has to do a 30k large show does a LOT less work than one that does it in front of a 5k one and assume a lot less risk.

The problem with the music industry is that geeks and nerds really just don't understand what is all involved in the real world, yet they pass along suggestions and pat each other on the back for being so insightful about how bad this industry is. It is almost as bad as non-technical managers showing up to a development meeting and telling the programmers that we need XYZ feature and it should be a slam dunk because its obviously easy as they've seen others do it (not realizing they have had a team of 20 and a budget of $10M...where as you have 3 people who are also dealing with desktop support and told that when Bob leaves we don't have the funding to replace him).

Finally

Not to press a point, but NIN has been pushing a viral release of their new CD for some time now. They are a band that 'gets it' so to speak. They will make money even while giving away their music. If only the RIAA will learn from this, give content in new ways, give content that is more than an MP3 file, give content that is *WORTH* paying for.

I don't care if you don't like NIN's music, you have to admire how they are approaching the new medium and embracing a new environment. I will buy their CD just to have that heat sensitive label. NIN 'gets it' in my opinion.

Re:Finally

> his stuff doesn't seem to have progressed much.

I think his stuff has progressed a little bit. It's a little more organic sounding, particularly compared to Pretty Hate Machine. For example, one of the songs on his new album has a trumpet!

More importantly, I think his lyrics have gotten more mature. A lot of Pretty Hate Machine all the way to his previous two albums were about angst and navel gazing: "Woe is me, someone I love dumped me!". Maybe throw in a bit of "wow, the music industry is full of phonies! I blame you, God!". Maybe it's completely appropriate when you're a teenager or in college, but as you get older, it's a bit tiring.

"With Teeth" represented a shift in his lyrics in that they're more mature and he seems to be finally using his bully pulpit to say something important. "The Hand That Feeds" is a brilliant questioning of the war in Iraq ("what if this whole crusade is a charade?"). "Every Day is Exactly The Same" perfectly describes my job (particularly after a bitterly depressing day) after working for more than a decade ("I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine.")

Year Zero improves on that even more. He's gone from complaining about his love life to providing an interesting commentary and warning against the move to fascism. My favorite track "Capital G" is a perfect description a young Republican or someone who is on his way to becoming a "Brown Shirt".

So while the music isn't wildly different, I think that his lyrics have matured quite a bit. In that way, he's gone from entertainment to art, and it makes his music far more interesting.

Re:Finally

Did you notice his comment about using torrents... and that the torrents are hosted on the pirate bay?

Brillant.

Re:Finally

There's a warning on the CD about making unauthorized duplicates and the copyright infringements related to that... but Trent's releasing all of the "source" for these songs...

Then obviously you can make an authorised duplicate from the sources!

Re:Finally

I don't care if you don't like NIN's music, you have to admire how they are approaching the new medium and embracing a new environment. I will buy their CD just to have that heat sensitive label. NIN 'gets it' in my opinion.

Absolutely. I'm a music student in a program for digital arts and experimental media*, and I think it's fantastic to see a well established band taking steps to move the music industry forward. I don't care for NIN music (like, at all), but you have to hand it to them, I haven't seen anyone else do more to connect with their fan base, educate interested parties in the process of modern production and composition, and build interest about a new release. With the option of digital distribution, I can use techniques such as this to market my music (and hopefully monetize it through instructional downloads/official tab PDFs) while remaining free of an RIAA contract. If Trent were here, I'd say "good show." I'd probably also say "cheer up dude."

*University of Washington, Seattle if you care. :)

As a iMac owner

I have already downloaded them - proud to have garage band - but sadly I can't yet run the full songs through as they have too many tracks, and I have to figure out the optimization of Garage band to play them.

Did not have this problem prior, but then, I never tried this with real songs.

Has anyone else encountered the constant stoppages of garage band with these tracks?

Re:As a iMac owner

You need to ``lock'' some tracks by clicking the little lock icon at the left side of the main GarageBand window for each one. Locking renders the track to the hard disk, decreasing CPU usage (but increasing I/O).

A sign of things to come?

So let me see....NIN are releasing the unadultarated tracks so other people can have a go at mixing and remixing the songs...

I guess the next step involves giving everyone guitars so they can write the songs for them? ;)

Re:A sign of things to come?

Life's too short and I've too many other interests to worry about customising everything to the way I think it should be.

Some people say the same thing about an operating system. They tend to get mocked as luddites here on SlashDot, or tools of Microsoft.

Not saying I disagree with you. Just trying to give you some perspective.

Real meaning of open source

That way, if NIN go out of business and musical styles change, we will br able to recreate their songs in the new formats.

Whew!

got my money

This is the first CD I've purchased before I listened to it in years.

This is a good thing

I for one think that this is a nice, new path for other musicians to explore. Put out a couple of tracks as teasers for the album, and if the audience likes it more likely than not they're going to end up buying the album. It doesn't cost much for him to promote the album this way (other than paying for bandwith/hosting I suppose); it sure does his "street cred" a world of good anyways.

It feels to me like he's taking a very honest approach about it; after all if the tracks suck then the no-one's going to buy the music. But if they're great, I'm sure we'd want to listen to the rest of the album. He's putting his music/reputation/karma on the line, and in turn indirectly he's looking for your support to buy the album.

I'd really like to see other enlightened artistes try this. That'd really flip ole Jack [slashdot.org] in his grave eh?

I must ask

To all those who pirated RIAA content, with free content such as this, why do you feel the need to break the law?

You watch...

Slashdot will now praise Nine Inch Nails for their quality of music, their contribution to our culture, and their business sense.

Looks like they're wrapping up the ARG too

Or at least putting it on pause for a while and summing up where we're at [exhibit24.net]. I'm 24.24.2.1251 [exhibit24.net] btw :)

Alternate Reality Game

Something else to consider regarding the significance of these releases- NiN also launched an ARG called Year Zero as well, and the album is simply just part of the ARG- Reznor said "What you are now starting to experience [,the ARG,] IS 'year zero'. It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form... and we're just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride." Reznor has also called the Year Zero game "a new entertainment form."

So, they also release the individual tracks from the songs of the album, in Garage Band and other formats. Bad ass. But you know what else? This is all part of the game - some of the songs contain hidden pictures [wikipedia.org], backmasked vocals [echoingthesound.org] that lead to website addresses, and there's even morse code on the album.

It is expected that there will be even more hidden goodness available to us now that we can examine the individual tracks. Not only that but holy crap some of these hidden tracks are creepy- the Reaktor instrument in My Violent Heart, for example.

And the heat sensitive label freaked me out, even though I knew it was going to change... that of course revealed another code for the ARG. All the songs seem different after reading up on the ARG. And thats the thing- this album is another concept album, but instead it centers around a fictional future universe rather then being a big metaphor for Trent's own trials and tribulations. Though I'm sure some of those are mixed in too ;)

A Flash-using site? So much for "openness"

Not only is not "open", it is also remarkably stupid — the largely plain-text page (its background being a giant JPG) linked from the write-up is written entirely in Flash... There are not ringing bells and no blowing wistles — their web-master, apparently, knows only the single tool (hammer), and everything looks like a nail to him/her... Eeewwww..

This is one of those bands who's CDs I always buy.

There are certain bands' CDs that I'll always buy even if I haven't heard any of the songs, and I doubt I'm alone in this. Trent's already made his money from me and countless other fans; I think it's really a cool thing to do to release the tracks in modifiable format for all of us.

Another good thing I see more and more nowadays are the bands who make their songs available to listen to online. I bought the Black Keys CD after listening to their songs this way.

How long before the RIAA gets the hint?

Suggested album title: "Passive Aggression"

One thing I'm not clear on: if I put the songs on a USB keychain, will the RIAA sue [slashdot.org] me?

Not Too Surprising

Reznor had released several tracks off of With Teeth in this same manner. I believe that there was even a remixing contest (whether officially so or not). With that said, Nine Inch Nails is one of few "bands" worth listening to today and they (him?) continue to prove so.

IT'S A TRAP...is it?

Under what license(s) did Reznor/NIN release the sources? Who's to say the record company/IP rights holder won't come after you if you redistribute or even sell remixes?

this just in

Nine Inch Nails are still together. Read these comments from Apple: "Yeah we were surprised at first too, but now that we've got one of the coolest bands of 1995 plugging our software; we could really care less that you won't buy an iPhone."

Been there, done that

The Shamen released Pro-Gen (Move any Mountain) on CD as a set of distinct samples about 15 years ago - same aim - sample the clips and build your own remix.

Will Mantovani please let me remix their stuff ...

... so it has the grunge sound everyone wants?

Re:Isn't this the same band?

I thought that was "W.A.S.P." - "F*ck Like A Beast" or something like that?

But how do I write software to parse it?

What I the subject line said

Re:NIN?

You might really like the artist DJ Shadow. If you can find it somewhere you might want to find the track Organ Donor. It's well worth it.

Re:NIN?

Synthetic music is crap anyway

Isn't all music synthetic?

Re:NIN?

Its kinda pointless to criticize NIN for releasing their material like this when your so-called 'better bands' have yet to step-up and offer theirs.

Absolutely!

Synthetic music is crap anyway.

Yeah! Instruments are for pussies, a cappella is the only real music...