There's an interesting article on the music industry in today's London Times. People are still spending money on music but the record companies aren't necessarily getting that money. Many bands are staying away from labels and promoting and distributing music on their own. New economic models are developing.

A revealing story doing the rounds in America tells of a young rock band who decided to stop selling their CDs at gigs after they discovered that by offering their CDs for $10 they were cannibalising sales of their $20 T-shirts. The truth now is that a rudimentary cotton garment with a band logo stamped across it that has probably been manufactured for pennies in a Third World sweatshop costs about twice as much as an album recorded in a state-of-the-art western studio. And even at that price, recorded music isn’t selling.

By all accounts, the music industry has blown it's opportunity in adapting to the new era. Their reluctant participation in iTunes aside, it looks like it may be too late to undo the damage as the value of recorded music declines relative to the past. Recorded music is becoming, as one group put it, "the menu" and concerts, "the meal." Proceeds from the latter increasingly go directly to the artist not the label.

There's lots of legal and illegal places to download all kinds of free music. Here are a bunch of legit classical downloads if you're interested.