Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:40am ET by  
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Trent Reznor scores

One name sure to benefit from 'The Social Network' movie has to date enjoyed little attention during the film's persistent media chatter.

Let's correct that right here: Trent Reznor, Mr Nine Inch Nails, is the man behind the film’s occasionally ominous score. 

Director David Fincher was no stranger to Reznor, having used NIN music in his suitably dark 1995 movie ‘Seven’ (on which Brad Pitt met his future fiancee Gwyneth Paltrow). Fincher was anxious to re-employ Reznor. Reznor wasn’t so sure. "In all honesty, when David mentioned it was a movie about the founding of Facebook, I was like, 'What the...,' " Reznor told the LA Times. "I wondered how that could be interesting, but, knowing the level of excellence and integrity he brings to everything, I got the script from him. And then it became clear."

The film’s 19-song soundtrack, on which Reznor collaborated with frequent colleague Atticus Ross, is being marketed almost as cannily as the film. It was released in digital form yesterday and arrives next month on CD, audio-only Blu-ray and vinyl.

Clearly Fincher wanted Reznor badly because, in an unlikely Hollywood promo arrangement, the soundtrack is being released not by a major record company as an official film companion piece, but on Reznor’s own label Null Corp.

Reznor, a longtime defender of downloaders’ rights, is actually in competition with Amazon. The digital album, number one on Amazon’s top album downloads chart, is selling (evidently very well) for $2.99.

"As much as I hate the corporate partner idea,” Reznor admitted to the LA Times, “for this particular case it felt right."