Nine Inch Nails is offering its latest CD, Ghosts I, as a free download from its site. The collection is a teaser to promote their Ghosts I-IV, a new collection of instrumental tracks.The official download requires email registration at the site to get a download link. You can also download the collection officially via BitTorrent.

The download includes

• DRM-free MP3s, encoded with LAME at 320kbps
• A 40-page pdf book about the release
• A digital extras pack with wallpapers, icons, etc

The entire collection can be downloaded for $5, or you can order a $10 2 CD set and other deluxe and limited edition versions.

Here’s what NIN’s Trent Reznor has to say about the release:

This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

– Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008

Reznor previously produced the debut CD by Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, which was also made available as a free download.