Digital downloading leads to all sorts of creative and different ways to distribute music. This is a great time for fresh ideas and new strategies.

Arts & Crafts band Stars are selling their new album online just days after its completion. The physical release date is not until September 25, but the band knows it will eventually leak. "We hope you'll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album," the band wrote at its website. "However we don't think it's fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so." Since the promotional campaign won't kick in for a few months, it won't be evident to all that the album is even available. Maybe a few music critics will review the album (they tend to wait until the free CD shows up in the mail) but I'd be surprised if the band does much press until August or September.

Then again, just giving it away is an increasingly popular strategy. Music blog Stereogum is giving away OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer. The track-for-track cover of Radiohead's ten-year-old OK Computer was compiled by donations from 12 indie artists such as Cold War Kids, John Vanderslice and The Twilight Sad. It's a really great package, very well done. In effect, Stereogum is acting as an ad-supported non-label. This is in contrast to RCRD LBL, which aims to be an ad-supported proper label. Stereogum takes donations, though, while RCRD LBL will remunerate with more than exposure.

Additional reading:

• Peter Rojas talks about RCRD LBL at his blog. (Roj.as)
• Details on RCRD LBL (Coolfer)
• In 2003, Eminem bumped up the street date of The Eminem Show due to Internet leaks. (MTV.com)