• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 14, 2008

Since releasing its latest album online less than two weeks ago, Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts" has taken in $1.6 million in revenue.

What makes that figure even more impressive is that the group offered the tracks at pay-what-you-wish pricing. Users could download nine of the 36 tracks for free, purchase the entire set for as little as $5 or as much as $300 for an autographed version. What's more, press reports say the album is widely available completely free on torrent sites.

Still, fans clearly feel enough goodwill towards the group that they're willing to pay for the tracks.

"My faith in all of you has been restored," frontman Trent Reznor wrote yesterday on the group's blog. That stands in stark contrast to his sentiment last year, when a similar experiment with Saul Williams proved "disheartening." In that instance, he had produced "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust" by Williams, and gave fans the option of downloading it for free or paying $5 for higher quality tracks. An estimated 80% of people took him up on the free offer, while an estimated 28,000 downloaders opted to pay.

Reznor isn't just using the Web to distribute tracks. In his blog post yesterday, he also announced a partnership with YouTube for a "Ghosts" film festival. "The concept is for you to take whatever tracks you feel inspired by from Ghosts and create what you feel should accompany them visually," he wrote. "You will be able to see all of the submissions, and a team of us (including me) will be sorting through them and setting aside ones we feel are exceptional."

Nine Inch Nails has previously invited fans to make use of its tracks via remixes. Still, this partnership with YouTube appears to represent yet another evolution in the band's efforts to collaborate with consumers. And, at least so far, that approach appears to be profitable for the group.