“Eh? ‘Paying audience’? I thought you said music had to be free?”

No, I said PUBLISHED music has to be free. After all, why should the public pay for what they already have? Such an unnatural notion only arises from the unnatural privilege of copyright.

A musician’s audience (their customers) pay the musician to produce MUSIC – after all, the musician is WHO they WANT to pay, and the music WHAT they WANT to pay for. The audience have no need to pay the musician (or their agents) for copies, given they have clearly demonstrated they can make them quite easily all by themselves.

So, the musician’s slogan is effectively “Get this one free, buy the next one”.

In more words: “The recordings currently freely downloadable from my website have been paid for by my keenest fans. I invite you to join them in commissioning future recordings.”