A number of big industry players have begun to enter the world of free music downloads. Key to a few of these talks is music sharing Daddy Napster: discussions with O2 and Vodafone to offer free, legal music downloads to their customers are ongoing. Talks and deals too are abound for 24-7 Entertainment who are teaming with a Nordic provider to offer downloads of unlimited legal music without paying an extra fee on top of their mobile bills.

The biggest news in this arena – and perhaps the biggest surprise too – is the decision of Sony BMG to team with Peter Gabriel’s new free music downloads site We7 and offer its entire back catalogue for free streaming on site. To say this is great news for lovers of music downloads is an understatement of epic proportions.

There is some concern that all this free music will affect the sales of legal music downloads and of course this is yet another storm that the music industry must weather if it is to stay afloat in what have been of late a very exciting times.