Trent Reznor's unorthodox experimentation

From the latest issue of Rolling Stone, profiling Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and his summer tour:

As an experiment, Reznor gave away a pair of tickets for the tour's dress rehearsal by hiding an envelope under a rock in Burbank. Using a Google Earth link on his Website, Reznor indicated the tickets' location with a question mark. Fans quickly found the envelope. "Well, we couldn't leave that alone," Reznor says. "We hid another 30, in places from Watts Towers to behind a mirror in a strip-club restroom to a Home Depot." One envelope was hidden in a graveyard; the location was announced after it had closed for the day: "We wanted to see if anyone would break in, because I would've. And someone did." Reznor contemplated providing the location of Axl Rose's house and encouraging people to dig in his yard for tickets, "just to see how many people got arrested on his front lawn."

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This little stunt comes after Reznor released the albums Ghosts I-IV and The Slip last spring in unconventional internet distribution schemes. Reznor says of his motivation: "People feel it's their right to get stuff free. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. I think that's a fight you can't win. So then how can you treat fans with respect and treat yourself with respect? By experimenting."

What can we learn from a musician and his undying spirit of experimentation despite harsh times for his industry?