Nine Inch Nails are giving away their new album, The Slip, as a free download at www.nin.com.

Trent Reznor is presenting the album as a token of his appreciation for his fans: “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years. This one’s on me.”

The download has been available since 12:01 Pacific Time this morning.

Nine Inch Nails recently offered an instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV, in a variety of options, including a deluxe physical edition.

Unlike that release, there are no paid options available for The Slip, nor are there any retail partners. A physical configuration on CD and vinyl is in the works for a July release.

The Slip marks the first time a major artist has made its new album available completely and exclusively for free as a DRM-less digital download. The album is available as a high-quality MP3 or in a variety of lossless formats including, for the first time, a higher-than-CD quality 24 bit 96k version. All downloads include a PDF with credits and artwork.

Like the free single, "Discipline," released last week to terrestrial radio stations and their websites and the track "Echoplex" appearing on iLike, The Slip is a traditional NIN album, featuring Trent Reznor on vocals and various instruments as well as Josh Freese, Robin Finck and Alessandro Cortini. The record was produced by Reznor, Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, with art direction by Rob Sheridan.

As with previous Nine Inch Nails releases Year Zero and Ghosts I-IV, the complete multi-track files to The Slip will be available free at launch, allowing anyone who wants to create his or her own remixes and reinterpretations of the songs to upload, share, stream and download them at www.remix.NIN.com free of charge or restrictions.

The Slip, like Ghosts I-IV, is being released under a Creative Commons license, allowing fans to distribute the songs and files freely and without fear of copyright infringement. More details regarding this license can be found here.