The problem becomes, though, if the sale and distribution of music becomes the sole responsibility of the artists themselves, where does the power to enforce legislation to prevent theft and copyright infringement come from? At the moment, the labels are the ONLY people with enough clout to try and pressure legislation and influence link sites to prevent wholesale theft of music (which is ALL digitally distributed and prone to theft, nowadays).

I fail to see how any of you buy into the 'big, bad label' theory. Let's face it, if a label COULD afford to pay the artist what they think they deserve, surely one of these musicians would have started one by now? It's a LOT more expensive to do than you all think. If it wasn't, there would be NO 'predatory' labels. No-one would sign with them...

It's called the Music 'Business' for a reason... it IS a business. And, if there's one thing that history has shown us time after time, musicians make TERRIBLE businessmen! Look at the Beatles and Apple...

I'm sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but the labels aren't the monster we WANT to make them out to be. They are no more 'evil' than the boards of any large corporation, and we aren't espousing that the means of manufacture be placed in the hands of the worker, are we? Look how well that worked in the Soviet Union!

Capitalism allows any of us, if we think we can do a better job than current businesses, to start our own. And, if we do a better job than they, we succeed and they fail. This has been TRIED in the music industry. And the inevitable result is either failure, or turning into what we reviled in the first place (because the bottom line demands it). Look at A&M Records, or any other musician started label... Someone, somewhere, HATES them as much as Sony or any other big label!

But with the world addicted to free music, stolen from those who worked long and hard for it (whether by themselves or with a label), who is going to stand up for the artist?

Artists NEED labels, now more than ever...

Unless fame alone, with little monetary compensation, is all they should now expect. Seems to me that the general public is shafting musicians more than any label EVER did...