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→Year Zero and Beyond
===Year Zero and Beyond===
It all started with an ominous daydream about what the world might be like if things in the United States continued on their current path with no change in course. With some of his personal experiences from recent years mixed in, Reznor created the outline for what would be his most ambitious project ever. During the recording process of this album, he met with people from [[42 Entertainment]], a marketing company that had been behind the successful alternate-reality games (A.R.G.s) that promoted the video game ''Halo 2'' and the TV series ''Lost,'' the latter of which Reznor is a fan. They would help in the package design and advertising for the forthcoming album, though Reznor saw it as more of an experience than marketing and advertising. A European tour was announced for early 2007 in November of 2006, as Reznor was finishing the recording process.
In January of 2007, Reznor announced that the forthcoming album would be called ''[[Year Zero]]'' and that it "could be about the end of the world." Mixing had begun on the album and would finish on February 5. Shortly after mixing was complete, the European tour began, along with what Reznor called the "Year Zero experience." He did very few interviews during this time, not wanting to spoil the surprise. He would become more vocal about his record label and the RIAA during this time, expressing his disdain for what he felt was the wrong approach to dealing with MP3 sharing and leaking songs.