Head like a hole; throat liked a splintered, debarked willow

You can give away your music. You can even make the bits to remix it available free. But even then, you can't protect your throat from market forces. Trent Reznor has canceled shows, and croaked out an apology:

"Just want to personally say how sorry I am to have to do this. I never take postponing a show lightly and if there were any possible way I could pull this off I would. This is a very frustrating and maddening situation for me and I appreciate your understanding. I'll make it up to you."

"I'll make it up to you" makes it sound less like he's an unwell man who's pulled gigs and more like a husband who's decided to play golf rather than going to see his wife's choir performance.