By: Senior staff writer – Easton Ellsworth

A new version of Songbeat is now available for Windows users everywhere. The first version came out in early 2008, allowing users to look for online music via the Seeqpod tool. The latest iteration of Songbeat adds other search engines to the mixture as well, and it enables users to play, download or share songs extremely easily.

You can even listen to AND record music directly from Last.fm.

The only limitation on Songbeat use is that you can only download up to 25 files for free. After that, you must pay $29 for the privilege of unlimited downloading.

It’s news like this that must really rankle the bigwigs at the old-school record labels.

I think people should be free to download, copy, edit, share, buy and sell music as they please. I think artists and labels alike will simply have to change the way they do business.

Services like Songbeat are here to stay. The Web is here to stay. The old revenue models will not always work anymore.

For many (if not most) publishers of music and other media in the future, the best monetization strategies will always have to account for the fact that people WILL copy and share things even if the fine print says they can’t or shouldn’t.

What do you think of Songbeat and its revenue model? Do you think it will last?