The cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons. And it is a glorious sight. Watching EMI, led by their torch bearer Lily Allen, fail in their crusade against file sharing has been incredibly entertaining.

But let’s not dwell on that too much. Instead let’s proved a simply explanation to the puzzle that has, apparently, for so many people, many of whom are involved in the music business, been so unfathomable.

How can musicians make money by giving music away for free?

All genuine independent musicians know that their strongest asset is their independence. Independence allows an artist to connect with their audience, giving that audience the chance to support them if they want to.

Contrast this with the record label model where middle men in grey suits wedge themselves uncomfortably between the artist and the public, grabbing their pound of flesh at every opportunity.

Thankfully the old model is over.

Independent musicians now have an unprecedented opportunity to get their music heard by millions. And all they have to do is give it away.

Want an example of this working?

You’re already looking at it.

Enormous, more specifically 2 of it’s band members, blog at enormousreloaded.com. This attracts publicity and allows us, as musicians, to connect with our audience.

Enormous attracts further publicity for enormousreloaded.com with Twitter with a series of accounts that are powered by Twitter Fireball. This brings in a steady stream of new followers every day, all eager to see who Enormous are and what they sound like.

All visitors are then treated to a 100% free downloadable EP. No DRM, no strings attached, no email required, no registration. Just a free download. An honest to goodness, just click it and it’s yours, download.

If people like the music there is a chance that they might like to buy some more of it. And they can. Currently they can buy this album, or this single.

All of the money from those sales goes to Enormous themselves. No middle men. No label.

Extra revenue is generated by sales of peripheral products that we are involved with such as <Twitter Fireball and web hosting. We feel that these products are of interest to our audience, especially to anyone, perhaps other independent musicians, who want to replicate our methods.

It works.

Twitter Fireball drives thousands of new visitors to enormousreloaded.com every day via a network of Twitter accounts.

Many of those visitors download the free EP.

And many of those visitors return to buy more music and to take a closer look at what we do, how we do it, and the products we use to achieve our goals.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that. And when the figures start to add up it soon becomes apparent why the major labels are so absolutely terrified of what can be achieved by a truly independent artist or band.