For those of you who haven't heard, Radiohead is offering their new album for download from their website - and you get to choose how much you want to pay. If you want to pay nothing, that's OK too (just enter 0.00 in the amount box). You will then get a link to click on which activates the downloading of a zip file containing the 10 track album, called In Rainbows.

You also have the option of buying an expensive CD set if you want that instead.

But the allure of a very cheap / free album has sent millions of people to the website which is resulting in the site slowing to a grinding halt. Pages are frequently crashing and you are sitting in queues for ever and ever waiting your turn. However, if you are calm and patient, you will finally get through in the end.

But what slightly irritated me was the fact that they wanted my name, address, mobile phone number and email address. So I am probably going to get bombarded with spam mail for the rest of my life.

Now that I have the album, I have to say that the music is quite interesting but I wouldn't want to pay full price for it. It's not really my thing. However, far be it from me to turn down something cheap or free!

Radiohead's strategy is similar to Prince's. Prince, who has a very savvy business mind, gave away his last album free of charge with a British Sunday newspaper. Everyone mocked him but he got the last laugh when his concerts sold out completely at huge prices. Now Radiohead must think that the strategy will work for them too. It's the classic case of a "loss leader" - give away the album for virtually nothing but use it to draw people in to buy paid premium products and expensive concert tickets. Getting the person's email address is a canny move too as they can now start relentless email promotional campaigns for the band. Of course it is entirely possible to give fake contact details as you don't have to verify anything in your email. Not that I am advocating anyone doing that but I'm just pointing out that anyone wanting to avoid being marketed to death can easily avoid it if they wanted to.

Could this be what finally shakes the music industry from its apathy? Do artists need to wrestle artistic control back from the music labels and do things their own way? It will be interesting to see if any other big names in music follow the lead of Prince and Radiohead. We could be on the start of something big here. It doesn't bode well for places like iTunes if the artists start demanding the right to set their own prices or give away their work for free.

While browsing for new sound-effect files for my instant messaging programs, I came across a pretty great sound-effects site called the Free Sound Project. Basically you can upload your own sounds to the site for others to vote on and download. Registration is required but the sounds are varied and of excellent quality. You can preview the file before downloading so you can see if it is what you are looking for.