That's very much like the advice that Marshall Kirkpatrick gave to Reznor writing on this blog in January after Reznor complained about the download-to-pay ratio the pay-if-you-want Saul Williams album that Reznor produced received late last year. "Times are changing and if you can, it's better to work on innovating along with them than it is to make dragging your feet and suing people your business model," advised Kirkpatrick.

At the time, Reznor wrote that he was "disheartened" that just 28,322 of the 154,449 people who downloaded Williams' album chose to pay the $5 for a higher quality copy. At the same time, though, that's nearly as many as who bought Williams' previous traditional CD release in 2004 (which sold 33,897 copies) and far more who are hearing his music -- which could theoretically translate to increased concert ticket and merchandise sales. Further, because by not dealing with a label the artist is likely taking a much larger cut of the download revenue than they would receive of CD sales revenue, Williams probably made more money on fewer transactions this time around.

Clearly, Reznor was not disheartened enough to forgo trying a similar type of release for his own new album. Ghosts I-IV part I is available as a free download on the NIN site, as well as on BitTorrent. The entire album is available as a $5 download, a $10 double CD, a $75 "deluxe" package with CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray copies, and a $300 "ultra-deluxe" edition that also includes vinyl copies and signed giclee art prints. The $5 download can also be had via Amazon -- where the album has quickly shot up to the #1 spot on the sales charts.

The 9-track free edition of the album is licensed under a Creative Commons license and is free for non-commercial use. "We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc." said the band in release notes.

Conclusions

While it is impossible to predict how this release will fare compared with previous traditional NIN releases, that may not be a fair question. The dynamics of the music industry have changed and artists like Reznor and Radiohead are blazing new trails as they attempt to figure out how to best release music under these changing market conditions. If 18.3% of downloaders pay -- as they did for Williams -- then that's probably not a bad number for NIN, who can bet that they'll get far more downloads than Williams (Ghosts is already the most downloaded torrent at The Pirate Bay) and will presumably be pocketing most of the revenue.

What do you think? Is Reznor's release a harbinger of the future of the music industry? Let us know your thoughts on the issue in the comments.

There are millions of Creative Commons photos in flickr's database, but finding the right one can take time. The new Photo Dropper plugin simplifies the process by adding a panel to the "Write Post" screen that allows you to search flickr's database for Creative Commons photos.

After entering in your keyword and clicking "search," the plugin will return photos from flickr matching your search terms. Underneath each photo are four links. Three links, "S", "M", and "L", allow you to post that size photo into your blog. The fourth link will open the flickr page in a new window, so you can double-check the licensing requirements if necessary.

The photo which is placed into your blog automatically has text appended underneath it that says "photo credit" and links to the user who is licensing the photo. The small Creative Commons logo precedes the text as well.

Photo Dropper also offers an option for commercial users. In the Options section, they can check the "commercial" check box to exclude photos whose license contains a non-commercial limitation.

You can download Photo Dropper for free from here.

According to a recent study by Jupiter Research, for each song sold, 100 more were stolen. The study also reported that 94% of online music consumers were unwilling to pay for music. The record labels finally got the hint: the Napster Generation thinks music should be free, and they will find a way to get it for free, despite laws or lawsuits. When the record companies realized all their attempts to make up for lost revenue from CD sales had failed, they knew that they now had no alternative but to offer free music to the online masses.

Enter Qtrax

The Qtrax catalog currently boasts 5,000,000 songs, but has plans to eventually offer over 25 million. This makes Qtrax poised to become the most complete online catalog of no-cost legal downloads anywhere in the world. The site, which will launch in Cannes, France with support from stars like James Blunt and LL Cool J is being heralded as the "death knell for CDs" as well as "a massive challenge to iTunes."

The Good

• Songbird-Like Player: Qtrax users download the Qtrax Player, a program built upon the popular Songbird platform. The player functions as the search engine and player for the tunes but it also provides access to a website filled with artist content, including videos, ringtones, lyrics, album art, and up-to-the-minute artist news.
• You Can Upload Your Music: Qtrax says that its users can upload their own music, including songs bought on iTunes or other services.
• May Include "Grey" Music: Since the service will let users upload their own collections, it's possible that Qtrax will allow the tunes like live recordings or demos. Although details are fuzzy on this, if these rare gems were included, Qtrax would have another big selling point.
• Artists are Compensated: Qtrax works with record labels and publishers, licensing their content for distribution online. when you download and play music, the support of advertisers allows Qtrax to compensate artists for their work, something that doesn't happen when you use illegal P2P networks.
• Safe & Free: They is no cost to download the software, there are no hidden charges, no membership fees, and no per song costs. There's also no adware, spyware, or spoofing.

The Bad

• Songbird-Like Player: It may be cool, but it's also mandatory to use the player. Since the player is where the service displays the ads, you must use it, no getting around it.
• DRM: Despite the recent wave of DRM-free music, Qtrax songs will be wrapped in DRM.
• No Beatles here, either: Some music is still  not cleared by labels for digital distribution, so even though this has industry support, you're not going to find those missing tunes here.
• PC-Only (for now): And by PC, they mean Vista and XP only. The Mac version won't be out until March 18th.
  

The Worst

• QTrax songs can't be played on iPods. They say this may change at a later date, but until then, this will kill the service's potential in a big way.

What it Means

What's most important about Qtrax's launch is the changed mentality of the record labels' vision for the online music marketplace. Having them realize that they must offer free music in order to compete with industry behemoths like iTunes, is a promising step in the right direction.

And free music doesn't have to be the disaster labels have always thought. Says Qtrax chief Allan Klepfisz, "the idea of free music is not so radical. Commercial radio and free-to-air television is paid for by advertisers and available for free to consumers."

Exactly.

The UK site offers DRM-free MP3 downloads with super-short ads preceding each song - for the first 4 weeks after download. Once a month you can select 20 tracks to remove the ad clips from, any additional ad removal will cost 20 pence (about 39 cents) per song.

Downloads are easy, right now all the songs I listened to had We7 promos instead of commercial ads. It's a solid little site - but what we're looking for in any music acquisition experience is the shortest path from discovery to rock.

Too complicated

So again, here's how the routine works: you either pay for songs or download them for free, with free downloads having a short ad before each song - for the first 4 weeks after download. After 4 weeks you can select 20 songs (presumably that you got a month ago) to remove ads for for free - and any other songs you want to remove ads from will cost you 20 pence (about 39 cents).

I gave We7 the girlfriend test - my girlfriend is very smart but she does not get as excited about tech for its own sake as I do. She said, and I think many people will likely agree, that this model is too complicated. Also, though it's not technically feasible with truly portable music, an ad played every 5 to 10 tracks would also be much more acceptable for consumers than an ad between every song. That's something that a whole lot of people are going to reject, violently. In other words, this is still too intrusive. In our house we listen to Pandora, we buy DRM-free tracks from Amazon MP3 and we find MP3 files shooting out the behinds of angels (but I swear we do pay out the nose for concert tickets!).Though interest was piqued by We7 - it's not enough to make us change our current habits.

None the less, this kicks the snot out of Spiral Frog - a company burning through money with a plan to require users to view advertisements in order to listen to DRM laden major label music. There's ads everywhere, account creation is required and the whole thing feels insulting and burdonsome to me. We7 isn't entirely different, but it's certainly trying.

Somebody, someday, is going to find a good way to make money on music again - even though the internet is wild and free. For now, the Peter Gabriel-backed video project Witness is still far cooler.