Maps of Music

Ghosts I–IV (2008)

Where the lyrics of Ghosts I–IV take you, and where it was really made.

Planned as a five-track EP, this album became a ten-week, no-agenda experiment that ended as 36 instrumental tracks.

Place unknown

Do you know where this album was recorded, or where its cover was shot? Tell us and we will add it to the map.

Ghosts I–IV: sixth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails
Released on 2 March 2008 by The Null Corporation, Trent Reznor's own label
First independent release after the band's split from Interscope Records in 2007
Almost entirely instrumental; only a few tracks contain sampled vocals
Conceived as a five-track EP; final release is four nine-track EPs, 36 tracks in total
Released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license
Sold in several packages and prices, including a $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition
Released without prior announcement; the only notice was a post on the site two weeks earlier

In 2007 Reznor announced that the band had completed its contractual obligations to Interscope Records
The band said its next album would likely be distributed independently
Came after the Performance 2007 Tour, which supported the previous album Year Zero (2007)
Began as an experiment with clear rules: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking
Reznor said he had wanted to make this kind of record for years, but it would not have made sense until then
Method: start from an imagined place, setting or situation, then describe it with sound, texture and melody

Core team: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder
Alessandro Cortini joined two weeks into the process and is credited on ten tracks
Adrian Belew contributed to select instrumental parts and shared writing credit on two tracks
Brian Viglione played percussion on tracks 19 and 22
Viglione's improvised drum kit used a 50-gallon trash can, water cooler jugs and a cookie tray with a chain across it
The plan for a single EP grew as the amount of material increased
Instruments include piano, guitar, bass, synthesizer, marimba, tambourine, banjo, dulcimer and xylophone, many sampled and distorted electronically

Rob Sheridan was art director, working with Artist in Residence
Sheridan was also art director for the earlier studio albums With Teeth (2005) and Year Zero
Some versions of the album have different or additional artwork
A 40-page PDF with one photograph for each of the 36 tracks comes with each version
The same photographs are embedded in the ID3 tags of every downloadable track

Formed in 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio, by singer-songwriter Trent Reznor.
Reznor was the sole permanent member until Atticus Ross officially joined in 2016.
The first live performance took place at Graffiti in Pittsburgh on October 27, 1988.
Signed with TVT Records and later moved to Interscope Records.

Core members are Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Robin Finck, Josh Freese, and Stu Brooks form the current live lineup.
Many former live members have been named, including Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, and Charlie Clouser.

Released Pretty Hate Machine (1989), Broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994), The Fragile (1999), and With Teeth (2005).
Released Year Zero (2007), Hesitation Marks (2013), Bad Witch (2018), and Ghosts V and VI (2020).
Won Grammy Awards for "Wish", "Happiness in Slavery", and "As Alive as You Need Me to Be".
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

Metacritic: 12 critic scores averaged 69 out of 100, rated as generally favorable
IGN: 8.7 out of 10, found the music engrossing and encompassing
PopMatters: 8 out of 10, described the album as 36 tracks but no songs
Pitchfork: 5.0 out of 10, said nearly every untitled instrumental sketch felt emaciated and half-finished
Blender: criticized the album as coming back with no label oversight, no boundaries and no tunes
The Washington Post: said there was too much here but it was the most interesting NIN in years
Newsweek's Seth Colter Walls: called it an absorbing musical experience
Rolling Stone: called the album a new-media showpiece
Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk: called the release remarkably extensive

PopMatters, reviewing The Slip, later described Ghosts I–IV as an aimless batch of instrumentals packaged in a brilliant marketing scheme
PopMatters had compared its style to Brian Eno and Robert Fripp and classified it as dark ambient
Robert Christgau summarized the sound as mental wallpaper and also linked it to Brian Eno
Many news outlets compared the release method to Radiohead's In Rainbows and to Saul Williams' album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!

Debuted at number 14 on the US Billboard 200 with 26,000 copies sold in its first week
Topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart
Sold 149,000 copies in the United States by May 2013
Peaked at number 3 in Canada, 15 in Australia, 26 in New Zealand, 58 in Austria and 60 in the United Kingdom
Nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Rock Instrumental Performance for 34 Ghosts IV, and Best Boxed Set or Limited Edition Package for the Ultra-Deluxe edition
First music released under a Creative Commons license to be nominated for a Grammy
In the first week the official site reported over 780,000 purchase and download transactions and over $1.6 million in sales
Pre-orders of the $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition sold out in less than 30 hours

Two weeks after release, Reznor announced a user-made film festival on the official YouTube channel, meant as a collaboration rather than a contest
The festival drew over 2,000 video submissions and over 13,000 members
The track 02 Ghosts I was featured in the 2012 documentary Kony 2012
Portions of the album were used as the soundtrack to the 2014 documentary Citizenfour
34 Ghosts IV was sampled for a beat later used on Lil Nas X's Old Town Road, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019
In 2009 Reznor received the Webby Artist of the Year Award, following this album and The Slip