Nine Inch Nails is taking cues from Radiohead’s experiment, and has launched their new album online, with record-setting options on both ends...free to very expensive. Its new instrumental album, “Ghosts I-IV” went live tonight, here (The site’s down very sluggish right now as fans hit the site in presumably crazy numbers).

The options include (via Idolator, since the site is sluggish):
-- Free downloads of the first nine tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection as DRM-free MP3s, plus the 40-page PDF.
-- $5 download: All 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats, plus a 40-page PDF.
-- $10 two-disc set: A double-disc set, packaged in a Digipak with a 16-page booklet, to be shipped on April 8. Includes immediate download of album.
-- $75 deluxe edition: Ghosts I-IV in a “hardcover fabric slipcase containing two audio CDs, one data DVD with all tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-Ray disc of Ghosts I-IV. Ships May 1. Includes immediate download of album.
-- $300 “ultra-deluxe limited edition package”: Deluxe edition plus a four-LP set on 180-gram vinyl, which is packaged in a fabric slipcase. Two limited-edition Giclee prints are included; package is numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Limited to a run of 2500, and one piece per customer. Ships May 1 and includes immediate download.

NIN’s contract with longtime label Interscope expired last October, and since then it is going direct, a la Radiohead. According to Billboard, one source close to NIN believes the differentiation between the approaches of artists in this position will actually be what changes the game. Hence these many pricing and package options.

Updated: The MP3 album also went live on Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) at the same time, the only online music store to offer it.

The album can be listened to below: