This sort of model has worked well in the USA in the past, with Avon http://www.avon.com/ and Tupperware http://www.tupperware.com (and *many* other companies) turning their consumers into a sales force, and selling one on one, with the salesperson thus being a trusted neighbor or friend.
Now, I'm not saying I'm advocating having music follow the "tupperware party" and "Avon lady" model (that's an ethics question) but that this selling technique has been very successful. Generally, the companies successfully doing this kind of thing have sold a high quality product, and have a huge selection, so the salesperson can put their personal stamp on the process by picking out the products they want to recommend.
This kind of mixing of salesmanship and domestic life may sound typically American (or perhaps, distinctly un-European), but I remember reading about a company that used a customer-based-salesforce in France who was wildly successful.
A side note -- when my company had a paid affiliate system with our anti-spam software MailShield http://www.mailshield.com/, we found that many fans of the software were offended by the idea that they'd be paid to recommend the software. When we dropped the pay-to-recommend system, the number of voluntary mentions on other web sites greatly increased. What did we learn? That many people don't want to be paid to recommend things, and that their personal reputation (avoiding the appearance of bias) required them to not recommend products where their motivations may appear questionable to others.
So, generally, I'm in favor of *not* offering money to people who recommend music, but, given the history of successful companies who have done this is other areas, it's likely there's a viable business model in the "Tupperware for music" vein, and perhaps weed is it.