Having become an unwilling victim to the many "MP3" blogspots in existence, helpfully(?) aggregated on an by the hour basis by The Hype Machine (www.hypem.com ), it seems that quite a number hover over myspace etc and lift, usually with permission, tracks from new artists and relay them thence to anyone so seeking. So my suggestion would be a myspace presence and a willingness to directly contact the apropos blogs related to your milieu of music. I have discovered numerous signed and unsigned purveyors within my choices of folk/jazz/country/blues etc etc in this way.
Clue: rather than sticking to Hype machine, when you find a blogger with a taste you like, look thru' their back pages and those of their friends and conspirators, often highlighted in a list of like minds.

I agree completely. I find the blogs very useful both for finding things AND promoting things. I know WE always give them permission to post stuff, so I'd like to think audience-minded artists are in their favour. I genuinely have bought things from discovering them on blogs, although it's yet more proof that I spend far too much of my time on the Internet.

To answer your questions; ploy's don't tickle my lugs. I buy music, not ploys.
I acquire oodles and oodles of music at zero cost. If I hear something I like, I'll buy the real thing if it's available. By which I mean the CD or Album; personally, I don't want bits and bytes on a hard disc or a memory stick, I want ARTIFACT ON SHELF. I don't have to back up or index my vinyl or my CDs, or move them when I upgrade my computer, they just are. Plus I want music at the highest available quality; it's another debate, but I loathe MP3s.
I find music in a myriad of ways; friend's recommendations, Word blogger's enthusiasms, the radio, the internet.
What I pay for music has no relationship to the value I set by it. I have both studio and live recordings that are free to download in lossless formats, and which I rate as amongst the best music I've heard.
The music defines it's own worth.

It starts out as music being played on instruments and it finishes as music going in our ears. Everything else in between is just details. In 20 years time no-one will care what format Radiohead released their albums in.
Download it, copy it, share it, buy it, steal it, make it, hum it or stream it. But whether it provokes an emotional response or not is all that matters.

And at least we have the technology to simply enable the artefact, where and if required: however acquired and in virtually any format it is now easily possible to "make" a CD. Whether vinyl or downloadable file, if I want to "keep" it, I burn it. You call backing it up, I call it sensible. I found all that wax far too fiddly, when trying to recapture 8 track onto vinyl.
If I don't want or like it, I delete it.

It's a strange business to be in. You
make music to be heard. To be
enjoyed. Felt. Discussed. Then after
that you have to put bread on the table
out of it. It makes you crazy
sometimes trying to reconcile the two.
But i'll skew to the get it heard
argument everytime and hope it
moves people however they found it.

1. How does this work for artists who are not well-known enough already for such ploys to gain attention?

If I get directed to a MySpace page and they have four songs to listen to, but I can't download them, then I give up immediately and only listen to a few seconds of one song. For unknown bands their music is worthless (in monetary terms) and should be given away for free unless they have a CD in the shops. Unless the prices are eMusic cheap (20p - 30p a song) then I'm just not going to buy their music unless it really is that great.

2. Are you drawn to investigate music you wouldn't have already purchased?

Yes in that I would download it. No in that I will probably not listen to it. I have a lot of free tracks (and even a few complete albums) taken from eMusic. Very little of which I've listened to. And because it was free of charge, and I'm already indifferent towards the music, it is highly unlikely I would enjoy it when I do eventually force myself to listen to it. Of course, if the music is mind-blowingly great then it should overcome all my prejudices.

3. Does it devalue the music, in your mind, to be given it for free? Does it seem, somehow, less important?

Yes. I have already pretty much dismissed The Slip (new Nine Inch Nails album) as being a bit of a dud after only two listens. I didn't care much for his previous album Year Zero (I paid £9 for a CD) but I didn't dismiss it as a dud until after about ten listens. I've downloaded the free instrumental albums Ghosts I - IV and I haven't even bothered to listen to it all yet. And I say this as a massive NIN fan (Pretty Hate Machine to With Teeth are all remarkable albums that I listen to all the time).

But then again I've listened to In Rainbows about seven or so times and I've still not grown to like it, but I'm willing to assume I'm just not "getting it" so I'm going to keep working at it. Then again I paid £5 for my download so it wasn't free.

4. I'd quite like to hear from the masses is what WOULD draw you to a new release?

If I heard or read from someone that it was good and the description of the music appealed to me. Tell me that "NAME OF BAND" sound like Rage Against the Machine playing Suzanne Vega songs and that their debut album is good, then I'll be first in line to buy it. Does me telling you that Nine Inch Nails sound like Depeche Mode performing Black Sabbath and that The Downward Spiral is a great album tempt you into buying it?

...like an intriguing invitation. Were I not otherwise musically engaged, I'd be there like a shot. But I will be checking out Mr. Andrews with interest, nonetheless.

I love music in such a wide range of varieties that it's impossible for me to buy everything I want. Thus, I have to get what I can, how I can.

Myspace is invaluable - you can browse according to genre (hint - look at a profile for an act you like. Now look at their friend list - a good many of those will be similar-minded enough for you to enjoy)

The freebies in papers are good for the odd tracks too. Sadly, it appears that the compilations seem to be falling by the wayside in favour of the single artist CDs.
(Oh, and doesn't it absolutely hack you off when you buy the paper and THEN find it's a bunch of live recordings?)

Perhaps what's needed is a paper or magazine to do a feature on up-and-coming acts and have a CD compilation of their music free with that issue.
Not meaning to go all brown-nosed or anything, but the only place this really happens at the moment is this august periodical.

For me, I stumble on a lot of things live, or from recommendations. I agree, I hear solid details of a lot of things i learn to love from between the pages of WORD - again no browning of nose intended. It does strike me, however, that by the time I read of them, a lot of hard work and time has already been invested to get an artist to the point of being NOTICED by magazines.

As the market continues to grow, and become more crowded, what is it that selects which artists ARE oicked up on by even the more musically-minded publications (and listeners)?

I'm not suggesting any answers here, and I'm thoroughly in agreement with the suggestions posted so far. I suppose, as a working artist, I'm extremely curious as to how WORD readers approach the subject, being as I feel I have more in common, taste-wise, with this particular audience.

Again, I'm continually torn between the my own sense of "I'll love what I love, and I'll discover it as I discover it" and the obvious need for an artist to explore every avenue of getting their music to potentially appreciative ears.

Colour me intrigued, I suppose.

Marks off for not mentioning the Charlatans who announced their free album before anyone else whilst producing their best work in years.

My band are giving away our album in mp3 format from our website in the near future. A donate button will be available for us to beg with. The music has cost us little to record with cheap technology and favours being thoroughly used. We're going to do something special with the mp3's to try and keep it together as a complete body of work rather than separate files. After that we'll do a limited run of cd's with full artwork and a small number of extras tracks.

Why are we doing this?

We won't get picked up by a record company as we are too old and knackered.

We all have day jobs, wives, houses, lobsters.

It's the quickest way for people to get hold of the music. It's taken us far too long to record something we are happy with so why should we let a record company ruin it?

Myspace downloads are absolutely gash at 96kbps so all those bands on Myspace offering free downloads well, you spoil us Mr Ambassador with you sh*te chocolate. And as you may appreciate K, I need to get on with writing new songs for the boys. The next ones going to be a triple concept number. See you in 2015.