So Trent has released the latest album for free... I greatly respect that. I have of course been a fan of Trent's almost from the beginning. However, I also think that he's being ridiculously smart. By supplying a download in various formats in exchange for identifying information, he gets to figure out exactly who his discerning and dedicated fans are, and can target them explicitly in the future. He even gets to make decent guesses at some demographic data.

For example, I chose to download the album in M4A format via torrent. That makes me an exceedingly technically advanced and discerning user of Trent's products, as it's a large download of high quality recordings and I need to know how to use a peer-to-peer system. It also means that I most likely have an iPod. Also, if he sets up a number of servers as torrent seeders, which he undoubtedly has, he can track the kind of traffic and usage those torrents produce.

Once his project here is over, he'll have a huge list of uniquely identified people that he can very specifically target; next step, if I were him, would be to try to somehow tie those unique identifiers to locations so he can figure out where to tour. He may already have a bunch of data from other fan club stuff with email identifiers that he can try to merge. Anyway, good on him - he's doing the right thing, and providing a decent exchange for the information he's getting in return.