Nine Inch Nails Releases Song as GarageBand File For Mac Users

by , 5:50 AM EDT, April 19th, 2005

On Friday, April 15th, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor gave his fans a free song, and made it a GarageBand file to boot. "The Hand That Feeds" is an advance single for Nine Inch Nails' forthcoming album, With Teeth, which is due to be released on May 5th, 2005. The single is currently available from the iTunes Music Store for US$0.99, but the download makes the song free for Mac users who have GarageBand, a part of Apple's iLife suite.

Opening the download file requires agreeing to a license that, among other things, allows the user to use or modify any of the sounds in the song for noncommercial purposes. In addition, the license specifies that all of the sounds and recordings in the song belong to Interscope Records, the copyright holder, and are not being transferred.

In addition, accompanying the GarageBand file is a letter from Trent Reznor, that we are republishing in its entirety:

Hello all-

For quite some time I've been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks - to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what's there. I tried a few years ago to do this in shockwave with very limited results.

After spending some quality time sitting in hotel rooms on a press tour, it dawned on me that the technology now exists and is already in the hands of some of you. I got to work experimenting and came up with something I think you'll enjoy.

What I'm giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session for "the hand that feeds" in GarageBand format. This is the entire thing bounced over from the actual Pro Tools session we recorded it into. I imported and converted the tracks into AppleLoop format so the size would be reasonable and the tempo flexible.

So...

You need a Macintosh and you need GarageBand 2.0. If you have a newer Mac, you already have the software. The more RAM you have the better. I did this on a PowerBook 1.67 w/ 2G RAM but it has been running on far less powerful systems.

Drag the file over to your hard disk and double click it. Hit the space bar. Listen.

Change the tempo. Add new loops. Chop up the vocals. Turn me into a woman. Replay the guitar. Anything you'd like.

I gave this to my crew and band to test out and all work effectively stopped for a while - it's fun to mess around with. I've now heard a country version of the track as well as an abstract Latin interpretation (thanks, Leo).

There are some copyright issues involved, so read the notice that pops up. Giving this away is an experiment. I'm interested to see what comes of it, what issues are raised and what the results are.

Have fun-
Trent Reznor
April 15, 2005

You can find the GarageBand download at the Nine Inch Nails current news Web page, dated April 15th, 2005.

You can download the song in AAC format from the iTunes Music Store, where you can also find the rest of the Nine Inch Nails catalog.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This once again makes Trent Reznor one of the coolest musicians on the planet, and that's only if you thought he had ceased being so at any point. Long a happy Mac user, Mr. Reznor is embracing the promise and possibility of digital music, in all its forms, in a way that few other musicians have.

This file allows anyone (with a Mac and GarageBand) to look and see what rock star has produced, and then to go even further and modify it in any way they can imagine. That is simply more than most artists could ever bear to do...

...and it's all free.

We officially offer Trent Reznor a Mac Observer Salute, something we haven't done in a long time.