FLAC

Convinced the current music business infrastructure (requiring artists to rely on labels) is broken, Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor, released his band's new album Sunday night via his official site, marking yet another business experiment for this artist in the changing music market.

Last year, Reznor announced his band would free itself from record labels, and it looks like he’s following through with his promise. He released the new album, Ghosts I - IV (Ghosts Volumes One though Four), Sunday at 6 PM, says the LA Times' Extended Play blog.

The musician's experiment relies on the theory that customers would be willing to pay for the music if there's extra value included, so he released the album in various packages. The first 9 tracks are available for free in a high-quality, DRM-free MP3 format, and a 40 page PDF book and a digital extras pack with wallpapers, icons, and more come included.

Everything in the free package is included in the 5$ set, but the rest of the album gets thrown in, and it's available in a variety of DRM-free formats including 320 kbps MP3, FLAC Lossless, and Apple Lossless.

CNET has a video preview of the Cowon iAudio U3. So far no real informaiton on it, just read the spec sheet to a camera, but I can wait. He did mention, as I did, that it plays FLAC files. He also said that it plays Oh Gee Gee files as well. Am I the only one who says Ogg?

I think I just found the only portable digital music player I'd ever consider purchasing. The iAudio U3 by Cowon. Christina has the iAudio U2 and she is very happy with it. Just plug it in and it works like a USB mass storage device. Quality build, no problems with it so far.

Yeah, I've seen the Rio Karma (Roi closed up shop a few days ago) and a few other harddrive based players, but nothing solid state until now. I could do without the color screen, but whatever, solidstate FLAC here I come. I hope the price is right, but I think it will be, knowing how much Christina paid for her U2.