Rock band Nine Inch Nails (also known as NIN) became a free agent last October during the frenzy of digital distribution brought on by Radiohead and now the group has proved that it wasn’t just jumping on the bandwagon. [You should be ashamed of yourself –Ed

Nine Inch Nails released its first album as a free agent on Sunday and have taken a slightly different route to Radiohead.

Instead of offering the album on a pay-what-you-please basis the group is offering fans the first nine tracks of a 36 track album for free. The additional 26 tracks are going to set you back just £3.

The instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV, won’t be released in stores until the 10th of April so no doubt hardcore fans will be more than happy to fork out the few quid it’s going to cost to get them the full album over a month before it’ll be available in stores.

Many fans claimed the reason for pirating Radiohead’s In Rainbows was because they weren’t that much of a fan and it was just easier than downloading it from the band’s website, while others cited heavy traffic on the site.

It appears NIN may have found a way around the “I’m not that big of a fan, really” crowd. By offering the first nine tracks for free they’re giving lukewarm fans the chance to sample the album before deciding if they want to go all out. On the other hand Radiohead fans were offered the whole album for free and they still downloaded it elsewhere. As always, time will tell. . .