| change gon' come |

Timbaland wants to start a new chapter in the new year. Part of his refreshed take on life is "Timbaland Thursdays," which is his version of Kanye West's GOOD Fridays. While definitely a nice gesture, the concept isn't "different" at all. In fact, he's not even the second or third artist into the gate. West originated the concept of free weekly music drops earlier this year, with the idea already taking hold with a few hip-hop notables, including Swizz Beatz (Monster Mondays) and Lloyd Banks (Blue Fridays).

With Timbaland being the latest of the super-producers trying his hand at scheduled, pseudo-official leaks, we're now beginning to see a new trend in the digital music era. Artists have already circumvented the relative PR stranglehold of their labels by joining the twitters of the world. Now, it appears that at least some of them are given some kind of free-rein to put out new music directly to the consumer. What I see with these kinds of drops is artists trying to maintain some semblance of control over their material. The the most basic of computer users today know something about downloading free music; it's a way of life and even a habit for some. Timbaland himself notes that some people just don't have the extra money for pay for music, so here he is joining his trail-blazing peers in taking the anti-Metallica approach to things.

It would be a huge understatement to say that this is merely an interesting trend. With Timbo the King now also promoting this distribution tactict, are we seeing the war against free music shift towards a more careful embrace of the once(still?)-villified MP3? I'll also accept Dr. Dre Saturdays, but probably stay away from Diddy Tuesdays. Stay tuned...