In case you guys didn't hear about the big Cinco de Mayo music news yesterday, Nine Inch Nails -- Mr. Trent Reznor -- released a new album. The remarkable thing? It is completely free. Some time ago, Trent was finally free from his long-standing record-label contract. Shortly thereafter, he released an experimental instrumental multi-disc album called Ghosts I-IV. He offered the first section (there were four) for free, the whole thing as a digital download (WITHOUT DRM) for $5, a physical double-CD for $10, or a limited signed deluxe edition for $300.

He quickly made $1.6 million off of the consumer-friendly release of the record.

He even released it under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (the same that Frants and I use on Flickr).

Now, he's back:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

I gotta say, whether you dig the man and his music -- you gotta respect him. He's always been an outspoken critic of the record industry, and how it often fucks over the fans as well as the artists (years ago, when his album was being released in Australia for $30+, he told his fans there that they should just download it over bittorrent). Now, he's putting his money, and his music, where his mouth is.

It also help that the album is quite good. It has more of a "live band" feel than some other stuff, and it's got one of his most pop-catchy songs in quite some time.

Therefore, I give you today's song of the day: It's Nine Inch Nails: "Discipline".

This is actually Monday's song, which I neglected to post yesterday. Today's song will come a little later. This is a tune that I've heard off and on my favorite Sirius Channel, Left of Center, for the past few weeks. There's a simple beauty to the melody of the song, and there's a serious passion behind the vocals. I sing it, and it makes me happy. Simple as that.

So, your song for yesterday -- "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver.

Listen, and if you like, find a blog to download it from at the Hype Machine.