Over the weekend, users claiming to be “the official profile for NIN” began popping up on popular torrent sites. As it turns out, they weren’t lying.

After breaking with Interscope, NIN decided to take the distribution of its music into its own hands and released its latest album, Ghosts I-IV, via its official Web site.

Of course, Radiohead took a similar route with their latest album In Rainbows, which was available digitally on a suggested donation basis before it was given a proper, physical release earlier this year.

It seems more and more that labels are becoming less necessary, but keep in mind, the bands that have been able to pull stuff like this off are once that are already pretty well established. As much as we all think they rock (and they do), Radiohead and Trent Reznor are already pretty well off; there are still plenty of bands out there who need to suckle at the music industry’s teat before they can strike out on their own. At least, if they want that flashy automobile. Hybrid, of course.

Festival Radness Alert! SF Outside Lands, which will be held at Golden gate park in San Francisco from August 22nd - 24th, has announced their headliners: Radiohead. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Jack Johnson.

You know they’re going to announce some more rad additions; this is a three-day festival so those three will probably just be the tip of the iceberg, but one hell of a tip that is: Tom Petty and Thom Yorke? Do you really need any more?

Well, more couldn’t hurt. Be sure to check back at www.sfoutsidelands.com in the coming weeks for more news.

Nine Inch Nails ended their relationship with Interscope when their record contract expired in October 2007 so Trent Reznor decided to pull a Radiohead and just released Ghosts I-IV via his Nine Inch Nails website.

You can check out the whole thing here.

Ghosts I - IV is a brand new 36 track instrumental collection. Clocking in at right around two hours of new music that was - according to Trent Reznor “composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain. I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.”

There’s a few different ways to get your new NIN - here’s the breakdown:

1. Free downloads of the first nine tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection as DRM-free MP3s, plus the 40-page PDF.

2. $5 download: All 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats, plus a 40-page PDF.

3. $10 two-disc set: A double-disc set, packaged in a Digipak with a 16-page booklet, to be shipped on April 8. Includes immediate download of album.

4. $75 deluxe edition: Ghosts I-IV in a “hardcover fabric slipcase containing two audio CDs, one data DVD with all tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-Ray disc of Ghosts I-IV. Ships May 1. Includes immediate download of album.

5. $300 “ultra-deluxe limited edition package”: Deluxe edition plus a four-LP set on 180-gram vinyl, which is packaged in a fabric slipcase. Two limited-edition Giclee prints are included; package is numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Limited to a run of 2500, and one piece per customer. Ships May 1 and includes immediate download.

I went with option 2 for the $5 since I hate CD’s. Option 5 is pretty sick though but that’s a lotta Euro’s at this moment. I ordered my downloadable copy last night and still haven’t been able to actually download it thanks to what must be a shit load of traffic. The whole album is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States which means there should be some sick remix’s floating around the internets sooner or later. Also worth mentioning is the last line of the NIN Ghosts FAQ that mentions “an exciting partnership and experience regarding this release.”

Hey look, it’s Radiohead playing all the songs of In Rainbows, live in the studio.

…yeah, it’s their New Year’s gift, but it is also an advertisement to buy the non-MP3, hard copy version their new album, In Rainbows. You can do so here.

Check out the new Radiohead video for ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place”.  The whole ‘head-cam’ idea is cool, but about midway through it I felt like I was getting sea sick from.  Yey for new good music… double yey for me out how to embed video again.

It was announced last week that Radiohead have signed with British label XL Recordings for the UK distribution of their new album In Rainbows. The special In Rainbows box edition will be available December 3rd.

In anticipation of the hard-release of In Rainbows, their old label Parlophone is issuing a 7-disc boxed set of their previously released albums (including Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995), Ok Computer (1997), Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003) and their live album I Might Be Wrong (2001)). That’s cool and all I guess (if you are missing more than one or two pieces of their catalog). If you’re a real n3rd you’ll be purchasing all of that on their 4GB USB stick (which will be shaped like their freaky-eyed bear image). The stick will be released alongside the CD box set on December 10th. You can pre-order that shit here.