This article is not Bear related in any way, but it's interesting enough for me to post it.

Downloading music for free  has always been a controversial topic; some believe that sharing music is fine, but there are others, such as Metallica who view it as stealing (back in 2000, Metallica made a stink about it when they found out that their demos were being shared on Napster).

Whatever your opinion is when it comes to downloading free music, seems like some musicians are taking a new stand: some actually want you to download their music for free. They are making their music available from their websites while giving you the option: download it for free or download it and donate.

Radiohead, on October 10th, made their 7th album In Rainbows available as a digital download from their website, and if you paid some money (whatever you wanted), you will receive the music now and the discbox on December 3rd. The other option - no discbox, just free music.

Today - November 1st - a musician I like a lot - Saul Williams - did the same thing; his latest album Niggy Tardust - is available here on his site and you can either pay $5 or just grab it for free. The album was produced by another artist I like - Trent Reznor from NIN. There's an interesting article about all this on CNET in which Trent mentions that the internet is a perfect place for artists to promote themselves. Altho giving music away for free is one thing, the flip side is that this should lead to sales for such things as concert tickets and merchandise.