RIAA Attempts to Remove Approved Promotional Nine Inch Nails Mp3s

Trent Reznor, the man behind the industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails, took a novel approach to promoting his latest album. Rather than rely on interviews, tours, and a MySpace account for marketing, he used a "multifaceted Internet scavenger hunt, and in some cases, his own rabid fans" – including tactics such as leaking MP3s of songs from the album by depositing USB drives in bathrooms at tour sites, or playing them on the receiving end of phone numbers listed on tour t-shirts.

The only issue with this creative and (very NIN-ish) ad campaign, it seems, was the RIAA, which began demanding bloggers and others on the "InterWeb" pull the freely released MP3s from their sites. (Yes, you read that correctly. The RIAA ordered the removal of songs the artist wanted given away.)

The album release on April 17 would seem to indicate the end of the story, but the NIN creativity continues – this time in a manner some suspect to be directly aimed at the RIAA interference. Reportedly, the CD is black before being played but eventually changes color revealing a binary code that when translated points to www.exterminal.net.