Making money from giving away free stuff

There are other ways to make money from free sharing of music than the proposed idea of shaking down marks. HomePageDaily finds that Hobbledehoy are doing quite nicely, thank you:

Since offering several albums for free via digital download in late July, Mr Majerczak has noticed a surge in physical sales; not just CDs but T-shirts and vinyl as well.

"Sales have definitely increased, which I'm sure in part has been a result of our new digital model," explains Mr Majerczak, 22, who started the label from his Ivanhoe bedroom in 2006.

Yes, yes, of course it doesn't follow that everyone would experience identical results, which is why there's a large number of digital models being experimented with. But it does show that there's more opportunity than threat in the world of sharing.