The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina II: The Friends & Enemies Of Modern Music (2000)

Near the end of the Machina sessions, Billy Corgan expressed a desire to release the new material as a double album—a Machina duology—but Virgin Records was uninterested due to the poor sales of Adore. Following the release and commercial failure of Machina/The Machines of God, Corgan considered releasing the second part of Machina as a standalone release, but Virgin's management balked at the idea. Nevertheless, in July 2000, the band entered Chicago Recording Company to complete material for Machina II, which was subsequently released on Corgan's own label, Constantinople Records. Only 25 copies of the record were pressed—mostly given to friends, with one copy given to local radio station Q101. A few discs were sent to select fans with instructions to immediately make the material available online for free download. Due to the album's "conditional" release, few professional reviews were released, but they were unanimously positive. The A.V. Club called the album the band's "creative peak." A reviewer from Pitchfork Media also opined that the record was "the pinnacle of the band's career." Allmusic called the album "a triumph for the band." The Michigan Daily also published a review, describing the disc as "one of The Smashing Pumpkins' best albums to date."
In April 2010, Billy Corgan commented on the album's reception in the music industry, stating: "I think the fan reaction to the album at the time was very positive, because the fans who were around at the time, in my opinion, liked Machina II more than Machina I. However, over time, Machina I has come into its own—it has proven to be the more influential part of the duology, and it has influenced the music of many up-and-coming bands I've interacted with. […] In the early 2000s, when I released this album for free online, it seemed like an isolated incident to me. I never would have imagined that we would soon witness the collapse of the music business and its dominant control over how music reaches people."