But the music industry has changed tremendously in the past eight years. Bands and record labels long ignored the threat of the internet and for a time refused to experiment with online distribution. But with physical CD sales in persistent decline and legal music downloads only partly making up for the lost revenue, the music industry is frantically searching for a new business model.

Artists including Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead both ditched their record labels, opting to sell their music directly to fans over the internet. Radiohead's In Rainbows was offered on the band's website for two months before launching in stores and fans could download it for free or for whatever price they were willing to pay. Nine Inch Nails are selling their latest four-volume album, Ghosts I-IV, through their website and the first nine tracks are offered for free, including on BitTorrent websites that also house reams of pirated music.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Ulrich said Metallica's contract with Warner Music expired after their next album. "We want to be as free a player as possible," he said.

"We've been observing Radiohead and [Nine Inch Nails frontman] Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the internet." Ulrich said eight years ago the band was a fierce critic of sharing music over the web because the members thought that sharing should be on the artists' terms. "Back in the day there was a much bigger question about 'On whose terms?' " Ulrich said.

"We said, 'Wait a minute, it should be about the artist.' Then all hell broke loose and we sat on the sidelines for a while." For their part, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have accepted that it is virtually impossible to stop music piracy. Instead of trying to fight back the tide, both bands have embraced the internet and, by giving some songs away for free, have been able to harness the web's viral marketing power.

While many, even most, users will be content with the freebies, even if a small percentage go on to buy the music, the bands, thanks to the low overheads of online distribution, can turn a tidy profit. Nine Inch Nails announced that Ghosts I-IV, released via NIN.com, earned the band $US1.6 million ($1.7 million). Official sales figures for Radiohead's In Rainbows haven't been released but when the album was released on CD in stores, after already spreading virally online, it hit No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.