There are a couple of cases that could serve as precedence and examples for artists to follow for their sake and ours.
The first of these cases does not deal with music, but rather the illegal distribution of a graphic novel. Steve Lieber, the writer and illustrator of the graphic novel, Underground had discovered that his book was being bootlegged on 4Chan one page at a time. Interestingly enough, rather than threatening legal action to the pirates, Lieber decided to jump in the thread join his new fans in discussion about his graphic novel. As a result of his actions, the sales of Underground spiked significantly, even more so than when it was reviewed on the popular blog, Boing Boing (Beschizza, 2010).
The main question that this story begs is whether or not the sales increased due to a free sample that was so good that people wanted to buy it, or was it because of Leiber's appearance onto the thread? Perhaps it was a combination of the two questions. Obviously the circumstances may have been different if music files were being distributed, but I believe that elements of this case can be applied to future marketing models.
The next case does in fact deal with music and the recording industry itself. Radiohead, the same band who highly benefited off of promotion through Napster, released an independent album online called In Rainbows in October of 2007. Although this does not sound out of the ordinary, please let me finish: they asked their fans pay whatever price they wanted for it. Fans could pay nothing for the album or they could the full price; it didn't matter.
When it was all said and done, the band made $10 million in the first week of the sale of the album. The average price came out to about $6 per album even though over a third of the fans didn't pay anything for it. The best part about this was that since the album was independently produced, they did not have to surrender the majority of the revenue to the record company. Through this business model, the consumer paid a smaller price while the artist received more money (Ultimate Guitar, 2007). This seems like a win-win situation. Since everything worked so well, is this a business model of the future for all music artists to follow? Or was this possible because Radiohead is so well known? I would place my money on the latter. However, such a business model could be modified to fit the need of the artists since not all bands could market themselves based on fame alone.
Whether or not these cases prove to be an anomaly in the fight against piracy remains to be seen. If these cases are viewed as "valid," they could help start a revolution for the future of music delivery. Through our technology and digital literacy, we can help change the attitude towards piracy into one that is positive so we can end the legal wars and create a better digital environment for artists and consumers in the like.