Recordings are free, and are used to promote the shows.

If you're a band, and you're not putting free high quality mp3s up on the peer networks with attached info indicating how to contact for bookings, you're a band of boneheads.

It's been a long time since most bands made any money from recording; they make money by putting butts in chairs at the show. Recordings are a tool to help do that, and the internet is the best way to distribute them to potential customers of the show.