Last week, After The Show published a post called “Music > Cereal, pointing out the discrepancy between a box of cereal costing the same price as an entire album of music.

Magic Pie Music then posted a response, called “Music < Cereal: Why $5 for a digital album is too much.”

This response raised many good points, but I think the biggest problem with bands giving away their music for free (or very little) creates a barrier to entry — such a model benefits already-established artists and big name artists, but new bands and indie bands would face quite a struggle if their main source of income was merchandise and concert tickets alone. How would they make enough money to be able to tour (and sell this merchandise and these tickets) without first making money by selling their music online?

You can read that post as well as follow-up comments here. Feel free to contribute to the discussion by leaving a comment.