R.I.P The Spiral

With the release of a new album, available in stores as of April 7th, the nin.com has slowly been undergoing a face-lift.  The Nine Inch Nails website first unveiled its new skin simultaneous with the surprise release of Ghosts I-IV and later sported a news feed and Flickr links. 

Spiral members have known that The Spiral’s days were limited; in August Trent posted:

 after much thought and discussion, we’ve decided to give nin.com and the spiral a drastic overhaul/upgrade. over the next 6-7 months, we’ll be preparing for the launch of the new nin.com/spiral (merged) site. we will not be accepting any new memberships during this time. the spiral will remain “as is” and all existing memberships will remain valid. be prepared.

Answers to the questions of “when” and “how” were becoming more apparent when Trent no longer posted on his blog and updates materialized on nin.com rather than The Spiral.  However, earlier today Trent officially announced the pending end of The Spiral, scheduled for within the month. 

The new nin.com will incorporate much of the interactivity and benefits presently offered on The Spiral, but a paid membership will no longer be required. A free nin.com account will be all that is needed to access the features of the new site, and The Spiral in its current form will no longer remain active. As we get closer to the upgrade, we’ll be making more information available to existing Spiral members to better prepare for the transition to the new site [...]

We’re very excited to begin offering a wide range of improved interactivity to all nine inch nails fans, all for free.

The death of the Nine Inch Nails fan site stands as a sad milestone for those dedicated members of many years, but the merging of the two sites brings good news for both veteran members and non-member NIN fans: free access to Nine Inch Nails.  Spiral members may mourn the exclusiveness of The Spiral; however, this eradication of fan site exclusivity and fees acts as an integral part, if not a good faith statement, in Trent’s quest to alter the face of the music industry.  The archaic methods of labels revolve around close control of the product, but the idealistic musician behind Nine Inch Nails now gives the power to the people–all people, rather than just paying fans–with creative commons releases, free access to pre-sale tickets, and “inside” band updates and photographs.

Nevertheless, veteran Spiral members mention a good point: What prevents scaplers and brokers from simply registering as a fan on the new site, stealing front row, reasonably priced pre-sale tickets from dedicated fans?  And the other privaledges rewarded to Spiral members, such as admission to sound checks?  Perhaps exclusivity did properly weed out the mediocre fans.  Hopefully, and surely, Trent has reasoned through these issues.

Simply stated, Trent treats his fans right, and I doubt he would merge the sites without ample thought and care.

 

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