George Michael to be Internet-only artist

George Michael is retiring from the music business to become an Internet-only artist, he announced today.

The singer said he will never make another album for sale in record shops - because he does not need the money and is sick of being famous.

Instead he intends to put all future songs on the Internet for free.

Fans will be invited to make donations in exchange for downloading the tracks, which multi-millionaire Michael will give to charity.

The 40-year-old star made the surprise announcement during an interview with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1.

He is currently promoting his long-awaited new album, Patience, but revealed it would be his last.

“I think it’s going to be my last commercial promoted release. I’ve been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don’t need the public’s money,” he said.

“I’d really like to have something on the Internet with charitable donation optional, where anyone can download my music for free.

“I’ll have my favourite charities up there and people will hopefully contribute to that.”

He added: “I’m sure it’s unprecedented, it’s definitely unprecedented for someone who still sells records.”

Explaining his reasons, the famously reclusive star said: “It’s what I intend to do. It does two things – it takes the pressure off to have a collection of songs every so many years, which is what nearly killed me.

“It also removes me from a world.I’m not pretending I won’t be famous any more, but believe me, in the modern world if you take yourself out of the financial aspect of things, i.e. you’re not in anybody’s chart, you’re not making anybody any money, you’re not losing anybody any money, believe me, I’ll be of very little interest to the press in a certain number of years.

“I’ll hopefully be a happier man, giving my music and also doing something really positive with my music if people are generous enough to donate to the site. I’ll remove myself from all that negativity.”