Entertainment Weekly has named DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album its favorite of 2004. Pretty good for a record that had no commercial distribution, wasn't played on mainstream radio, never came out on CD, and was the target of numerous cease and desist letters.

For any that missed the Grey Album, and the subsequent Grey Tuesday protest, now is a good time to catch up. The Grey Album phenomenon will be remembered as a watershed moment for the music industry, putting the lie to all the industry wags who defend the old distribution mechanisms with the tired claim that "no artist has ever broken out through P2P."

EFF assisted with the Grey Tuesday protest and posted an explanation of the interesting fair use issues raised by it.

The entire Grey Album, by the way, is still available for download from Illegal Art (be kind and try the Bit Torrent and other P2P links before using their bandwidth). Check out "Dirt on Your Shoulder" -- that one should be on your best of 2004 list, too.

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