George Michael shuns music industry

Found on BBC News on Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Browse Filesharing

Pop star George Michael is abandoning the music business to release his songs online for free instead.

The multi-millionaire singer said he will never make another album for sale in record shops because he does not need the cash and does not enjoy fame.

Fans will be given the option to make donations online in exchange for downloading the tracks, and the proceeds will be given to charity.

Explaining his decision, the former Wham! frontman said: "It does two things - it takes the pressure off to have a collection of songs every so many years, which is what nearly killed me."

"I'm not pretending I won't be famous any more, but in the modern world if you take yourself out of the financial aspect of things, you're not making anybody any money, you're not losing anybody any money."

Nice move. I guess George Michael has more than enough money already, so why work hard and try to make even more? And his fans will be happy about this decision (unlike the music industry, I hope).