One of the music industry's major headaches is that many listeners are now in the habit of getting music for free, while artists, naturally, are still keen to be paid for their work. A possible new solution has emerged at myspace.com/windows, where MySpace has teamed up with Microsoft to offer 1,000 different MP3s to download for free. Though you don't need to sign in or register, the image attached to each MP3 features a Windows advert, alongside the track's own artwork. You'll only see the ad if you look at your MP3 player while the track's playing (and you could easily replace it with non-branded artwork), but the artists are paid by Microsoft each time their track is downloaded. Judging by the lack of big names among the acts taking part, the terms don't appear to be particularly favourable, but it'll be interesting to see if the idea of brands funding our music collections catches on. Meanwhile, Bell X1's gorgeous Snow Man is a good entry point to Bill Gates's bumper giveaway.
via guardian.co.uk
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