[PJ]

Alright I tried to bite my tongue. Here we go.

A lot of valid points in here. Working in the industry, I'll try and clear a few things up.

Personally, I only (and am willing to) pay for music from Canadian artists, and upcoming independent artists. One track you buy from an independent artist is worth/means way more than buying all of Lil Wayne's CD's. The big names don't need any more of our money.

Record sales from the big record companies/labels are pretty redundant now. ALL the money goes to the label. An artist makes more selling a t-shirt than a CD. However, with independent artists, record sales is usually their only form of income.

Other than the A-listers getting royalties and endorsements left and right, musicians make most of their money from live performances (touring) and producing other artists.

Radio play is more of an exposure tool than a form of revenue. Like someone said above, with internet radio, you barely get a fraction of a penny. With commercial radio, you make $0.15-$1 every play, depending on the station.

On the other hand, when artists license their music to film/TV and video games, that's when they make some pretty paycheques.

The reasons why the artists don't even bother fighting these things is that it doesn't matter to them. They're still getting exposure, and it's not their money that they're losing. They just got a million dollar paycheque from their tour; they're not gonna bother fighting to get their $2 cut from CD sales.

Either way, I suspect record labels are going to be gone in the future. With Youtube being the top vehicle of exposure (not to mention viral capabilities and their advertisement payouts), it's pretty much useless now to sign with independent labels. All the giants will still be around, but unless an indie label has some crazy hookups in film/TV, they're pretty much chasing their tails. For example, unsigned Youtube stars like David Choi and Christina Grimmie are far, far ahead of signed artists like Hedley, Marianas Trench, and Faber Drive. The latter 3 are signed, touring, and producing, but I would bet dollars to donuts that the Youtube stars have a bigger following, more income, and more freedom than the signed artists. Everything the Youtube stars make, they keep. Anything they promote off Youtube and sell, they keep. They cross out the middleman of a record label, and are far better off.

The whole "signing a record deal" is all a big illusion at this day and age. Of course it does have its perks.. being on TV, being sold in (dying) CD stores, meeting celebrities, and most of all, it's a fast track. The label will take care of all your videos, sales, marketing, tours, whatever. But that comes with a price.
Indie artists have to do all their own work, book their own tours, find their own funding, and so on.

In a few years, the whole industry is going to be made up of Youtube and a handful of the big shot labels.

Everything else will be pennies in a goldmine.