In a move that’s sent shockwaves through the music industry, Fakesensations, a band you’ve probably never heard of, have decided to allow fans to buy their new album Isaac and the Secret Chord for £7.99 (or $9.99), from any of various online download stores.

From October 15th, fans will be able to purchase the album using credit cards, Paypal or other so-called ’systems of payment’. Once the transaction has been completed, they will be able to download the album and then listen to it as many times as they want.

The band’s lead singer and main songwriter Christian Ward said: “We know this will be viewed as controversial by our peers, but we’re not afraid to embrace new business models. Giving hipster indie kids absolutely no choice about what to pay means that they can spend less time waiting for overloaded servers to finally deliver them their free album - three hours after they entered their email details and were added to a mailing list that’s gearing up to spam them about overpriced branded merchandise of no use to anyone - and more time actually listening to the music they just paid for.”

An industry spokesman commented: “We think this is a worrying move at a time when established artists like Radiohead, The Charlatans and Prince have been able to churn out any old second-rate rubbish and give it away for free in the hope of making some money off T-shirt sales when they go on tour. Asking fans to pay for their albums means that many of these bands lazily trading off of former glories will now have to produce music actually worth buying.”

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