Apple Approves NIN iPhone App

The delayed update to Nine Inch Nails' iPhone application has finally been approved by Apple, according to a Tweet from the band's tech-savvy mastermind, Trent Reznor.

The news follows some online railing against Apple, who initially had rejected the update, because, the company claimed, it contained objectionable content that originated from the band's 1994 album The Downward Spiral. Reznor reasoned that since the record is sold through the iTunes store, an app with the same content (the app's podcast feature boasts "Closer," the song that helped earned the disc a "Parental Advisory" warning) should be treated no differently. And apparently, his public outcry has shifted the company's thinking on the matter, and, as Reznor excitedly announced this afternoon, it "should be live in a few hours."

Earlier this week, Reznor hit the Web, and, in an online post, compared Apple to Walmart, writing, "You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can't allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck's sake get your app approval scenario together." The approved version of the app is actually the rejected version, as Reznor did not modify it.

Fans of the band largely criticized Apple, questioning its selective commitment to decency standards, when apps have been approved which allow people to violently shake babies and snort virtual lines of cocaine.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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