In a surprising move, Nine Inch Nails have posted access to a free download of their new album “The Slip” via www.nin.com. The band had been posting on their official site that a surpirse was due for Monday, May 5th.

The album is 10 tracks and is available in a variety of formats, including MP3 as well as high-quality lossless, all of which are free. Physical copies of the album will be released in July of this year through traditional distribution methods.

“A statement on the site from frontman Trent Reznor says simply, “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years — this one’s on me.”

Demand for the music has been high, as nin.com slowed to a crawl after the free download had been posted.

Personally, I think this is a great idea, and more importantly a great way to show appreciation to all the NIN fans out there. Nine Inch Nails is a band that has been heavily supported by its fans since the early 90’s. I am going to download a copy of the album for myself, give it some listens and post a review here. I’m curious to see if the album is similar to Nine Inch Nails last release, “Ghosts” with lots of ambient and guitar effects, or if it’s similar to their earlier material, it might be neither.

Source - Billboard.com