Bloc Party Tracks For Free?

I was reading NME.com today and stumbled across an interesting article about how Bloc Party, among several other bands, will soon be giving their tracks away for free on the We7 website in a deal that V2 Records recently made. The other bands include Stereophonics, The Rakes, Cold War Kids and Little Man Tate.

We7 makes it possible for you to enjoy free music downloads - but the artist still gets paid! Every time you download a free MP3 or video from We7, a small payment will be made to the relevant artist.

This is because we allow global brands and companies to include a message on the music tracks that users download for free, for up to 10 seconds or less on audio.

So you download music for free, brands pay for their message and your favourite musicians and artists get paid! Free music downloads are simple, legal and safe with We7.

If you want to download a music track without an ad, you'll be able to buy the MP3 at the normal price.

But for a free music download, We7 will feature the ad at the start of your music track. However, four weeks after you download your free track, We7 will give you the option of having the track 'ad free' - so you'll be able to take full advantage of our new free music download model.

This certainly is a new business model for digital music, but I'm not sure that I like it. I do think that it's a good place to start, and it gets the conversation going in the right direction. However, I would not want to listen to an ad every time I put on a certain song. It just ruins the moment. What do you guys think?

Download some Bloc Party without the ads:
DOWNLOAD: Bloc Party vs. Gwen Stefani - "What You Hunting For?" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bloc Party vs. Coldplay - "Hunting For Witches In My Place" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bloc Party vs. Madonna - "Groovecopter" (MP3)