The big difference about the KLGW stunt is that they are actively trying to get people to set up record labels to sell the album, with no copyright or royalties attached, rather than it being the act of just letting people have it for free (which bands worldwide do thousands of times each day).

They're releasing the files in three different formats - digital download, cd mastered and (importantly) vinyl mastered formats, so as anyone can take those files and get them pressed up to the highest standard possible.

This is from a band who already have numerous highly collectable releases behind them, so as could be imagined there's been an almighty scramble from literally hundreds of would-be entrepreneurs trying to scramble onboard this seemingly no-catch gravy train.

The really interesting thing though is how it's going to pan out over the next 6 months - whether there'll be a big enough body of collectors who want as many variations as possible to keep the market flowing and mutating, OR if it results in total overload and devaluation of the album (which could even have the unintended consequence of putting some labels out of business due to over investment and unsold over stock !).

Either way, it's already been a huge success story for the band in terms of publicity. As an act that's able to release four albums a year, they can probably happily forgo the royalties on this one LP in exchange for the huge amount of product that'll flood the market and the exposure that will follow.