> When music artists did this, didn't their popularity have a significant part of their success? Yep. Nine Inch Nails was very successful. Saul Williams' Rezno

> When music artists did this, didn't their popularity have a significant part of their success? Yep. Nine Inch Nails was very successful. Saul Williams' Reznor-produced album, released through the same mechanism and heavily promoted to Nine Inch Nails fans (advantages that wouldn't be available to most) didn't sell very well.