There’s no price like free. Killjoys tell us that nothing is free, you just don’t know what you’re paying since it’s not cash (they’re right, but let’s skip over that inconvenient fact). But watching the buzz about music.download.com start to build, it’s obvious that the appeal of free isn’t dead. What’s on offer? Free music.
Of course, since this is 2004, not 1999, and the RIAA killed off Napster (the original), free music doesn’t mean any music you want, from every artist you’ve heard of. It means the concerted availability of lots of independents who want to give away a few promotional tracks. Not bad, just not everything. But it’s early in the game.