Nine Inch Nails’ Not The Actual Events came out in December of 2016. Last summer saw the release of another EP, ADD VIOLENCE, with frontman Trent Reznor explaining that it was the second part of an EP trilogy. The final installment, Bad Witch, is now on the way, but Reznor and his label are being careful to clarify that the third piece of this EP trilogy is not actually an EP. He posted in a Nine Inch Nails fan forum today as “teitan” — the name has long been understood to be his username there — with his logic behind the non-EP EP.

Reznor’s explanation was prompted by user Quantum550 who posted:

I know very well how an album length is and a EP length is. This is an EP.
You can consult every source out that this duration is of an EP.
An album would be 7 tracks at minimum and over 30 minutes.
Fucking hate music industry sometimes.

From what I’ve heard until now, Add Violence ranks #1 to my taste and NTAE ranks #2. This will probably rank a low #3.
The EP must have delayed for obvious reasons… (all apologies, etc) but the real fact is lack of inspiration.
That is the truth I think.

“Teitan” responded:

Want to know why it’s being labelled an LP instead of an EP? EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today’s music-isn’t-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore? We’re not charging any more for it so why get worked up about it? Quantum550: suck my entire cock.

Bad Witch has six tracks and runs 30 minutes and 11 seconds, while an EP typically contains fewer than six tracks and runs under 30 minutes, so Reznor is technically not wrong. His parting directive was presumably in response to the “lack of inspiration” comment, not the gripe about EP duration.

We’ve reached out to NIN’s reps for more details and will update when we hear back.