For the past few months, people have been talking about the give-it-away-and-they-will-buy-it model for content distribution.  Now, NiN’s Trent Reznor has released his new Ghosts I-IV albums at a variety of price points, from the first album free to $300 for the super-duper deluxe version – and he sold all 2,500 of the latter.

While it’s not exactly the same as Radiohead’s deal – there were price points of $0, $5, $10, $75, and $300, each of which got you different things – it demonstrates innovative thinking on how to get music out there and be noticed, yet still make money.  The notable thing about NiN and Radiohead are both famous groups already.  It’s hard to know if this sort of model would work for unknown bands.

Incidentally, for another album-funding method, check out Scottish band Amplifico, who got the funding for their first studio-produced album by asking fans for donations.  As an apology for releasing the album late, they made a 3-track album available for free download from their website.