Insound - Tipping musicians on tour

Insound, a online service that allows musicians to sell their albums and merchadise has started a new program called “Give more, Get more“. I quote from their site to explain what the program does -

Every time you buy an MP3 album from Insound (not EPs or singles), Insound will donate $.25 of our take to a touring band. We choose 6 lucky bands that we like, but you get to select the actual artist to earmark your quarter to. Furthermore, should you wish to “tip” additional funds to these great artists, you can add your own tip during checkout.

I found out about the program from a blog post at Idolator. As expected the comments there are raising questions about the central idea of tipping and also how Insound chose these random six bands? There are also nuances that Insound is now owned by Warner and how much can consumers trust them to support Indie musicians. I don’t particularly mind what they do with their quarter, after all it is their money.

On the other hand, what I find most interesting is that a service like Insound is using the idea of tipping to support musicians. Is this an implicit acknowledgement of the need for a patronage system for artists?