The album Ghosts I – IV was made available freely online and the band generated revenue from other means like selling products that ranged from $5 paid downloads to $300 super-deluxe edition download. Besides this the band also generated incremental revenue from concerts and merchandise, etc.
When the album was freely available the band generated substantial revenue and according to some reliable estimates the total revenue generated was more than what they could have generated from a traditional release.
Free:
The entire track of 36 was available for download. The 9 main tracks could be downloaded directly from their website and the remaining 27 were available legally via file sharing. This was possible as it was licensed with Creative Commons BY-NC-SA – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/-us/
Premium:
A website http://ghosts.nin.com that is worth looking at had the following products
$5 – direct download
$10 – 2CD set
$75 – Deluxe edition package
$300 – Ultra deluxe limited edition package (the 2500 copies that were made available were sold out in 30 hours flat)
Digital downloads were available via itunes and amazon. The album was rated as the number 1 purchased download on amazon. Revenue was also generated from concert tickets and merchandise.
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