Perhaps more socially useful than just 'giving away' your records

The Baseliners - perhaps inspired by the current belief that you can't make money out of recorded music anyway - have tossed all the take from their debut album to the Rotary Club.

Now, imagine if the supposedly-still-socialist McGee had thought of that for the Charlatans album, instead of merely giving it away... a good cause could have had a nice payday; the band would have still got the publicity (and might have not been edged out quite so swiftly by the Radiohead story) and the perception that the band's music is without value could have been avoided.