Reznor Criticizes ‘Insincere’ Radiohead Album Download

NINE INCH NAILS frontman TRENT REZNOR has hit out at RADIOHEAD for only making a low-quality version of their new album available online last year (07).

Reznor was impressed with Radiohead’s decision to allow fans to choose how much they paid to download In Rainbows online ahead of its release in stores.

However, he was less impressed with the music’s 160 kilobytes-per-second MP3 quality and the fact the disc came with no artwork.

Reznor says, “What they (Radiohead) did was a cool thing. But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality (music) stream.

“There’s nothing wrong with that – I but don’t see that as a big revolution
(that) they’re kinda getting credit for.

“What they did right – they surprised the world with a new record, and it was available digitally first. What they did wrong – by making it such a low-quality thing, not even including artwork… to me that feels insincere.”

Reznor released Nine Inch Nails’ new instrumental album Ghosts I-IV in cyberspace earlier this month (Mar08) and 800,000 fans paid anything from $1
(50p) to full price and beyond to download the tracks – netting the rocker $1.6 million (#800,000) from first-week sales alone. (

GES/WNWCNM/KL)