Another day, another band coming up with a bright new idea to release their album on the internet. The latest band to come up with 'something different' is R.E.M. - hardly the most inspiring on innovators and neither is their bright new idea. The band have announced that Accelerate, their 14th LP, will stream online at Facebook and other sites from March 24. A week later it hits the shops.

"It was one of those ideas that was presented to us and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it," Michael Stipe told a press conference. "You can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers."

Its not the first foray by the band into the digital world to be fair. In 2004 they offered 'Around The Sun' online to Myspace users, but its a fair indicator of that website's fall from grace that they've gone with Facebook this time around. Cue Bill O'Reilly outbursts against the band on Fox News sometime soon no doubt. Its worth noting only streams of the music are allowed, if you want to download or 'own' the music you'll still need to pay for it, so in this regard they haven't gone as far as say Radiohead did recently. There's a growing consensus building in the music industry that's says music will be made free eventually, and artists will need to find alternative ways to make a buck like touring and merchandise. REM aren't willing to lose their religion just yet...

More info :

www.remhq.com