Nah, it’s not some annoying pub game—something a little more amazing: Trent Reznor has made NIN’s new single, The Hand That Feeds available as a download formatted for Apple’s GarageBand on NIN’s web site. How cool is that? (Well, not too cool, if you don’t have a Mac, or aren’t interested in messing around with music…but still, it’s a pretty awesome gesture.)
The tracks have been converted into true AppleLoops, so the tempo’s flexible, and they can be mixed with other loops you’ve already got hanging around in GarageBand. He says:
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.
Kudos to Reznor for giving fans this kind of access to his music—it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.