The Band Coldplay offers (once more) a free download on their homepage. Not like Radiohead of their complete album (Radiohead isn’t signed at the moment). But EMI which is the label of Coldplay (and a but in trouble at the moment due to some private equity investors) apparently thinks about the future of music and allows Coldplay to offer one song for free. According to IFPI data the only thing that works at the moment are single a la carte downloads but not album downloads.

So the business model is a bit unclear but leads to the right direction. Knowing that the 95% which are not paying for music at the moment somehow or other can not be reached. How this trend will end in the future? The only sense could be to make the consumer go to the live concerts when they like the song. So no more economies of scale but more a service model is targeted here. 

Hm, I am still waiting for the E-Mail with the link for the song download(4-43PM –> now  i already wait since 10 minutes).

Update: i just received it (4-47PM). First impression: I do not understand why the file is packed with zip. Ok, it saved 2k of internet traffic but a lot of user who try a download for the first time could be deterred. My mother for example would like to try out legal online downloads but is not techi enough to understand what to do with a zip file. I am not sure what the industry thinks how to get more people to legal downloads when they make it unnecessary difficult for the users. The digital natives download the album anyway via bit torrent and in mp3, without DRM easy to use etc. But please do not try to convince people to buy online when make it on purpose difficult for people which make the first steps in online downloads.

but nevertheless, thanks for the song, it is really cool and i hope to see them live again soon