Nine Inch Nails continued touring and independently released Ghosts I–IV (2008) and The Slip (2008) before a second hiatus. Their eighth album, Hesitation Marks (2013), was followed by a trilogy which consisted of the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) and their ninth album Bad Witch (2018).

Reznor announced in late 2007 that Nine Inch Nails had fulfilled its contractual obligations with Interscope Records, and would distribute its next major album independently. The band's final Interscope release was a remix album based on material from Year Zero.