- Maybe the closest thing to represent the idea of music are musical notes, but I agree that the implementation of it could still be more diverse than other ideas that could be described amd sharded. - It depends on the motive for making music. If it's only done to make money, I think you are right. However, if it's done to express your intrinsic creativity, itch your own scratch or establish your talents for a greater public, I doubt if you would stop even if it has costs associated to it. Many artists these days (writers/musicians/painters, etc) establish themselves through their craft and monetize it indirectly through concerts/workshops/public speaking, etc. - A good concrete analogous example are open source software developers. Or, imagine the inventor of fire/wheel/electricity/etc to artificially restrict its access... - Lastly, I personally think it's a good thing to support and I am willing to pay creative, productive people and great implementations of ideas...

I have to admit that I do not financially support enough of the FOSS I use. I love the value-for-value model for music but it should remain my choice to use it for my work (or not). If someone covers my song and puts it out v4v then that's more like my idea being used.