Nine Inch Nails released the numbers for Ghosts I-IV, and they are pretty effing impressive. The band released the 36 track  instrumental album March 2nd via their website.

The various formats totaled for what would be a chart topping 800,000 units (or in this case, transactions), which incorporates both free and paid downloads. The total amount earned for the first week of purchases is around $1.6 million, which includes 2,500 copies of a super duper ultra deluxe box set that would have set you back $300, AND that’s with crashing servers and other site problems due to an overwhelming amount of downloaders, AND they even offered a 9 track version of the album for free.

OK, while NIN seemed to have a very successful stab at the Release Your Own Album thing, it would be near impossible for an unknown artist to generate this sort of a result for an instrumental album. However, this is a pretty big slap in the face to all major labels, who have officially been deemed ‘useless’ in the face of all of this downloading and self-releasing on this internetsss thing. If more and more artists start doing this, and bands can blow up overnight on an indie due to some blog buzz, maybe this slaughter of the major label can conceivably be pulled off.

Blender recently named sueing Napster the #1 industry screw-up of all time. The record company’s war against the internet is such a blatantly futile waste of time, that I feel silly for even mentioning it now. The Nine Inch Nails, like Radiohead, gave their album away with the option of paying, and guess what? People paid. I want to give my money to Radiohead, not EMI.

The major label’s last selling point, getting exposure for the artist (in most cases, anyway), is pretty much moot. The tastemakers of tomorrow are not suits with checkbooks, and that is becoming more and more evident as this revolution unfolds. There will be a severe break-off California Earth quake style very soon, and all that will be left is a small amount of pop artists and country music (and don’t cry for the labels, they’ll be just fine). The rest will go indie, go blog, and go digital.

I’m sitting in my living room watching a band that was virtually unknown 10 months ago perform two songs off of their Billboard topping debut on Saturday Night Live, barely a month after the album’s release. A copy of the new SPIN magazine is near by, with a photo of this band on the cover that was shot before the album even came out. They are an indie band on XL Recordings, with bloggers and internet surfers to thank for their success.

Of course, I’m speaking of Vampire effing Weekend; and there will be a lot more Vampire Weekends as time goes on. The Ghosts sales figures make it even more clear that all you need to make it are good songs and an internet connection.

Thank you Trent for proving a marvelous point, and giving indisputable concrete evidence as to why the major label is over. Sure, you could have made excuses for a decline in record sales, like, “people aren’t paying for music anymore.” Well, you wuz wrong.

It’s all happening.