[joethelion]

well...
David Bowie was the first(?) (major - at least) artist to ever release something on the internet. It was the single for "Telling Lies", back in 1996. I don't remember if it was for free or if you had to pay. I do know that the single was later pressed onto (limited) cd's... but it was intentionally done so that it was harder to buy the physical release than just to download it.

He also released 'hours...' online as copy-protected mp3's before the album was physically released

...there also was at least two different in-the-studio webcasts as well. I definitely remember one was for the recording of the track "What's Really Happening" and the other was mixing the audio from a live performance (and you "were able to give input") for eventual release - I forget if this was for the "liveandwell.com" or the "Bowie at the Beeb" live albums

buuuut this was all between 96->99-ish - so needless to say, a lot of the streaming audio/video was buggy to say the least... and nothing quite worked out that well