BBC NEWS - I'm retiring, says George Michael
While I've never been a fan of his music, I will predict that if these free songs are any good, he will be more popular than ever. This is something the music business as currently constructed cannot begin to fathom: clamping down on the sharing of music can only hurt overall sales. They look at MP3 sharing as piracy, when it is actually free advertising. It's a minor loss of revenue, but a major reduction in promotional costs.