Nuts For Music

I heard this weekend that Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich was quoted in a Rolling Stone article as saying that the band would consider all options for releasing material on the Internet for their next album. Their latest studio album, slated for release sometime this year, is their last which they are under contract for with Warner Bros. music. Apparently after seeing what Radiohead and Trent Reznor have accomplished by releasing their albums online has done, Metallica is intrigued about doing the same sometime down the line. This is rather interesting after their battle with now defunct free music sharing service, Napster back in 2000. What I find interesting here is that really nothing has changed since then other than more people are downloading music online (both legal and illegal) instead of buying CDs in stores. So I wonder what has changed their minds? Maybe the fact that they can’t control their music being downloaded for free so they might as well offer it at a lower price. Like I’ve always said, I find paying $5 for an album fair. $10 and up is a stretch. So, if they do decide to distribute music in this way, I’ll be first in line to pay (though I’d likely buy the CD at the store if they didn’t).