Here at Little Fish Records our motto, for the last 10 years, has been "Support local music, buy a CD, visit a club...". Obviously much has changed for musicians and their marketing efforts over the years. The current model is: give away your music on the net, hope someone buys a CD and pray fans come to the club to hear you. That model may sound depressing but it isn't. Not if you focus on live music. Bands and performers are going to put their emphasis on live production. Producing a mindblowing theatrical experience for the club going fan will take center stage in thier marketing plan. Why? Because one thing hasn't changed - developing a following. If you have thousands of fans, big record labels will notice. However, these big labels cannot rely on Sound Scan stats to determine if your fan base is legit because there won't be any CD/download sales. The band/performer will have to play in clubs within a one day drive of their home base. The word will get out about the band/performer via local indie labels who keep in contact with the big boys.

Free has the connotation of inferior quality. However, it is quite clear that "free" is an integral part of web marketing and therefore has value.