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http://digg.com/music/NIN_Gives_Away_New_Full_Length_Album_the_slip

 I'm not a huge NIN fan, but it's pretty cool that they are giving away their album online free of charge. I know Radiohead allowed you to pay whatever you want, whether it be a dollar or 100 dollars for their newest CD "In Rainbows" online, but NIN definitely one-upped them on this one. I hope this is a continuing trend!
 

I'm not a fan either but I think that's a really huge precedent to set in the broad scheme of things to see a band offering an album for free. I'm curious to see how this goes for them. I certainly would love to see all music be free, but I also know that if great musicians can't support themselves, they won't be doing music. So I hope some measures are put in place so music can be free to the general public but also pay the musicians enough to make it worth their while. I don't necessarily think all these artists deserve the millions they make, but enough to make it worth their performances.

I think we're definitely making great strides in this direction. NBC is now offering its shows online for free, and adding just a few commercials into the mix. Many products are offered free online because ads on their pages pay the bills. I think they could find some way to do this with music as well.

What do you guys think? Will music someday be free for everyone or will we always have to keep paying the big bucks? 

I thought it really exciting and interesting to see both Ghosts and The Slip released online for free for their fans - and downloaded all three CD's worth of music to see what they were up to (even if you aren't a big fan of NIN their "Ghosts" album is quite interesting - a completely musical 2-CD set of atmospheric and experimental music by Reznor. I use it as background music when playing many a video game). I'm not sure if we'll continue to see this, however. There's still inherent costs in studio fees, production, and promotion of music. While there's definitely some strides in the industry to keep prices down - myspace music, streaming media, shows online, released content for free - I think we'll still always be paying for our entertainment as there's people still willing to pay for it ^^.

taking a cue from radiohead (who introduced mainstream music consumers to the pay-what-you-want format after reading naomi klein's no logo), girl talk also released his latest as a pay-what-you-want download.

what's interesting is that these recording artists discuss this not in terms of whether they deserve recompense for their work (i mean, duh?) but in terms of whether "the industry" of production and distribution deserves the share they've been demanding. i'd wager this change in attitudes will only grow stronger as the mode of recordings continues its shift from vinyl and cd to computer files.