Due to the distribution method chosen for the album, there were no leaks of the entire album prior to release. However, Trent Reznor and Saul Williams leaked a few songs before releasing it. Reznor leaked the songs "[[Break]]" and "[[Tr(n)igger]]" via [[Echoing the Sound]], later, a Sendspace link appeared on [[nin.com]] making the two tracks plus "[[Sunday Bloody Sunday]]" available as a downloadable zip file with lyrics to the songs. A few hours before the release, Saul Williams put "[[Scared Money]]" on his MySpace music player.
==Release==
The album was released at 1am Eastern Time on November 1st 2007, with the abilty to preorder. People are given the option to either "directly support the artists involved in the creation of this music" by making a $5 donation or to download the album for free. If you choose to pay for the record, you are able to download in 192kbps MP3, 320kbps MP3 or FLAC lossless audio. If you download for free you recieve the album in 192Kbps MP3 format. All versions include a PDF with artwork and lyrics, and "all files are 100% DRM free, and can be played on any device. MP3s are encoded with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME LAME v3.97] and love". The choice of distribution method garnered much attention and praise from the online community and was reported on by many websites. The number of downloads were not immediately released, with Reznor stating in an interview: "We do know the presale numbers, but we are keeping them a secret." Later, a follow-up revealing the statistics was posted on nin.com on January 3rd 2008and on January 10th the option to download the album for free was removed, offering the following explanation: ''"We have removed the FREE option from our site as it was limited to the first 100,000 customers."''
On NIN's official [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=11794012 MySpace] and [http://www.youtube.com/ninofficial YouTube] pages, a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwCCqVPb0XQ mysterious clip ] which originally featured on the album website was uploaded with a black man (probably Saul Williams , dressed as NiggyTardust) , sitting on a chair. The video was probably uploaded for promotional purposes.
==Trent Reznor on ''NiggyTardust''==