When Nine Inch Nails looked into filming their first-ever live peformance of The Downward Spiral, they ran into legal and financial barriers. But crowdsourcing saved the project:

On the recent Wave Goodbye tour, we were unable to professionally film the band’s performance of The Downward Spiral at Webster Hall, due to exorbitant fees requested by the LiveNation venue. Our open camera policy, however, remained in tact, and as soon as the show ended fans took matters into their own hands, organizing online to track down everyone who had filmed HD footage of the show. Now, only two months later, the group has released a polished, edited, downloadable DVD of the full Downward Spiral performance from Webster Hall. The entire thing has been recorded, edited, and distributed entirely by fans, and it’s the latest example of the amazing things fans will do when their creativity isn’t limited by outdated, misguided restrictions.

Nine Inch Nails, more than any mainstream band, has navigated the challenges of new media intelligently, using their fans self-interest to help the band promote and distribute their work.

You can watch “The Downward Spiral: Live” in HD on this YouTube playlist. You can also download it via torrent as a burnable DVD or an iPod/iPhone-friendly video from this page.