THE SMASHING PUMPKINS MADE JUST 25 MACHINA II SETS—AND TOLD RECIPIENTS TO SHARE THE ALBUM ONLINE FOR FREE

When The Smashing Pumpkins completed Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music in 2000, they had an album—but no ordinary release waiting for it.

Billy Corgan had conceived Machina as a larger double-album rock opera. Virgin rejected the double-album plan, and the first Machina appeared alone. The band later finished its companion as its announced breakup approached. 🧩

Then the Pumpkins turned scarcity inside out.

Only 25 physical Machina II sets were made through Corgan’s Constantinople Records imprint. Each contained a double LP and three 10-inch EPs—hand-cut, hand-numbered records rather than a normal commercial pressing. 💿

Copies went to friends, a radio station and selected members of the online Pumpkins community. But the important instruction was not to lock them away.

Recipients were encouraged to transfer the music into digital files and distribute it online for free. 📦➡️🖥️

The plan worked quickly. By late September, the album had appeared on fan sites and file-sharing services including Napster, Gnutella, Freenet and Scour. Twenty-five rare physical packages had become the starting points for an album anyone online could hear. 📡

Years later, Corgan described Machina II as an album put onto the internet through fans. He also said that, in the internet culture of 2000, he viewed the band as being in partnership with its audience.

That makes Machina II a wonderfully strange limited edition: one deliberately sent out with permission to multiply.

Twenty-five sets, one unforgettable request—don’t keep this to yourself. 🎃

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