Um, I’m not plugging anything in anywhere that I find in a public bathroom.

This is successful because it’s Trent Reznor, not because of the business model. He’s the part that brings the massive success to the table, not the method of delivery. He’s already a well-known brand, so to speak. Free music is great if you’re a teensy little band nobody has picked up, or a huge band that sells out stadiums. Not so hot for anyone in the middle where you can’t quite quit your day job, where you haven’t had a nation-wide radio hit. And rising gas prices have already begun to put a crimp on the touring of smaller bands.

Condemning artists to a lifetime on the bus and/or making T-shirts will pretty much kill off certain types of bands, but will keep some graphic artists employed. Until folks start sharing vectorized graphics so you can make your own T-shirt at Cafepress for a pittance. So much for income from those $40 concert tickets. Some of my favorite bands never tour. BAM, so much for that.

I’m no more of a fan of DRM than anyone else, and I think the RIAA pretty much sucks and should be replaced with something more reasonable. But not paying musicians to create music (but instead make T-shirts) and coders to create code (but instead sell coffee mugs) will lead to the production of great T-shirts and coffee mugs, not great music and code. Might as well value film-making by how much soda it makes the audience buy kids’ toys for the inevitable product tie-in.

Paying for the creation of music … so, let’s see … Pretend I’m a garage band. Totally unknown, aside from the time I played a bar mitzvah. I will post on someone’s website “Pay me $10,000 to create an album.” Not a lot of buyers on that. Jill Sobule, she’s a known quantity. Not well-known, for sure, I’ve only heard one track aside from “The Secretive Life” and “I’ve Kissed a Girl.” People will probably pay for Sobule to make music, but not an unknown artist. The hostage model fails for them.

The worst problem with the whole issue is testability – everyone has hypotheses (you, me, everyone) about economics, but there’s little experimental proof, with control groups and all. How would you, for example, prove that LadyTalk would sell more with free music than without? It’s a toughie. No, not arguments – Aristotle argued that heavier objects should fall faster and everyone bought that for quite some time because nobody bothered to look for proof. I would love to be proven wrong and find out that people aren’t basically greedy scum and that you can make it with a little fanbase.

You might have a better chance convincing folks to change by using evidence, rather than hope. Right now, you’re asking folks to accept, on faith, that this will work out for them at all stages. Labels and the RIAA suck, but it is a devil they know.

It’s sounds a lot like there’s different kinds of “free” that are supposed to operate during a musician’s (hopeful) lifecycle.

Your headlines are basically “free free free.” Maybe you could draw out exactly what kind of free you’re supposed to be using when. Differentiate a bit.

And Jill Sobule is not proof. She’s one person. She’s an anecdote. You know what they say that the plural of anecdote is? Well, it’s not “data.”

What you need is a bunch of Jill Sobules. And not just doing it for one album. You can convince someone to do something for one album – will she do it again? Is it succcessful for a population? I’m not suggesting she have a gold-plated toilet or anything, just enough to “make a living.” Do control groups.

I’m basically skeptical. What you’re doing is selling something – a product, Product B. Now, the customer has been using Product A and knows a lot of other people using Product A. They aren’t crazy about it but they kind of know what to expect. You’re selling this alternative method, Product B. The customer can clearly see the benefit – to you – but the benefit to them is quite a bit fuzzier. They don’t get how Product B works. It’s counterintuitive, and it’s a big leap.

Pretend you’re “selling” this business model to musicians (which you are). They can see that the fans love free stuff (everyone loves free stuff), but they’re not sure how that love of free stuff translates into getting their gas bill paid.

That’s why I suggest something besides handwaving economics and some anecdotes. Build a plan for them, back it up with some proof. Just quoting some basic economics doesn’t prove squat – our recent economic stimulus check is an excellent example of something which, in theory, has an economic benefit that doesn’t show up in the real world.