Nine Inch Nails enjoys a reputation as one of the most creative and independent bands in all of music. Trent Reznor, the genius behind the Nine Inch Nails moniker, has been hailed as an innovator by peers and critics, and the band has also enjoyed widespread success in terms of album sales. Spin magazine called Reznor "the most vital artist in music, " and in 1997, Time Magazine named Reznor one of the year’s most influential people. NIN is known for bringing "industrial rock" to the masses and heavily influencing its direction. The band has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, with 11 of that just in the US. They have won two Grammy's and have been nominated for ten.

While Reznor has received widespread acclaim form the music industry as a visionary, he is also a business pioneer and has taken a hands-on approach to managing his band. In 2007, Reznor decided he had had enough of the business side of music, split from his label and announced Nine Inch Nails would release future material independently. NIN has been at the forefront of digital music sales, releasing many songs digitally before you could even buy the record in a store.

Nine Inch Nail’s early days

The band was founded by Trent Reznor in Cleveland Ohio. NIN got its start when Reznor, working as an assistant engineer/janitor at a recording studio, convinced the owner to let him record some demos when the studio wasn’t being used. Reznor couldn't find a band that could play the way he wanted, so instead he played the instruments himself and was able to put together a 12-inch single. NIN received responses from several labels and eventually signed with TVT Records. Nine of the songs from Reznor's demo were used in the first NIN album, Pretty Hate Machine, released in 1989.

Pretty Hate Machine spent 113 weeks on the Billboard 200 and the album became one of the first independently released albums to be certified platinum. NIN followed the debut album with a North American tour and then a world tour, touring all the way to the first Lollapalooza Festival in 1991, where it has been said NIN "stole the show." Since those early days, tickets to Nine Inch Nails have remained among the most sought-after in all of music.

Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral

In 1994, NIN released their sophomore album The Downward Spiral, which peaked at #2 on Billboard. The album featured the singles March of the Pigs, Closer and Hurt. Most fans know the Closer video for its extreme, graphic and unusual imagery. MTV cut several scenes from the video for airplay and the video still resulted in widespread outrage. The Downward Spiral's tour, The Self Destruct Tour, gained NIN even more fans, and a 1994 performance at the second Woodstock Festival exposed them to an even larger audience.

Nine Inch Nails the Perfect Drug and The Lost Highway soundtrack

In 1997 Reznor was tapped to produce the soundtrack to David Lynch's film The Lost Highway. The soundtrack included the single The Perfect Drug, which was played heavily on MTV and has become one of NIN's better-known commercial hits,

Nine Inch Nails The Fragile

The double-CD the Fragile was released in 1999 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, selling 228,000 copies in just the first week. Spin magazine hailed it as the Album of the Year. Singles off the album include Starsuckers, The Day the World Went Away, We're in this Together and Into the Void.

Nine Inch Nails With Teeth

With Teeth was released in 2005 and again debuted at the top of the Billboard charts. singles include The Hand that Feeds, Only and Every Day is Exactly the Same.

Nine Inch Nails Year Zero

Year Zero, the band's fifth studio album was perhaps NIN's most experimental, lyrically anyway. The idea behind the concept album was an exploration of how the Bush years affect America 15 years in the future. The album uses the viewpoint of several fictitious characters to make its points.

Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV

Nine in Nails first made Ghosts I-IV available digitally for free. It is a 36-track instrumental album comprised with the assistance of various musicians.

Nine Inch Nails The Slip

Just like with Ghosts I-IV, The Slip was first made available digitally for free. The album's first single Discipline became the first independently released single to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks listing.

Nine Inch Nails Lights in the Sky tour

Nine Inch Nails have always been known for their inspired shows and imaginative sets. For this reason, Nine Inch Nails tickets have been in high demand since the band's early days. You can see why everyone is looking for Lights in the Sky tour tickets. With smoke, strobes, a huge projection screen and more all used during live NIN shows, it creates input for other the other senses that matches their music.

According to a Wired article, a NIN set includes "a system run entirely by Linux; hundreds of LED lights, lasers; intentional BSoD's, and "Stealth Screens"—huge, interactive marvels of tech and engineering that Reznor and his band mates can pass through and control in real time as the concert unfolds." It sure is a sight to behold, so you probably want to get NIN tickets as soon as you can.

The Nine Inch Nails name

Were the name Nine Inch Nails came from is debated by fans. While Reznor has said he chose it simply because he liked the way it sounded and abbreviated, some have speculating its a reference to the nine inch spikes used to crucify Jesus. Alternatively, some fans have said it references Freddy Krueger's nine-inch fingernails from the Nightmare on Elm Street films.