themselves to a very limited tightly grouped audience.  But if you are not in one of these categories the independent artist route is tough. In 2010 there were 75,000 albums released.  Of those about 60,000 sold less than 100 copies. Only approximately 2,000 sold more than 5,000 copies.  Slightly less than 1,000 sold more than 10,000 copies.  And you got to figure most of those artists were on record label artists. An album that sells 10,000 copies for the independent artist would gross around $65,000.  From that $65,000 dollars the independent artist must  pay for recording, a publicist, radio promotion, advertising, photos artwork and on and on.  You quickly realize that the independent artist is unlikely to be better off under the new system.   In practice the independent artist is unlikely to net anywhere near the 65% we estimated. Rock and Roll Animal Spirits. Then there is the matter that the independent artist must raise the capital to record and promote the record.  The record label artist has the advantage of receiving a loan of sorts from the record company.  The independent artist must either scrounge together the money or borrow the money.  But imagine being an independent artist and trying to borrow money from someone to make a record.  In this day and age no one is ever gonna loan an artist money specifically BECAUSE of widespread illegal file-sharing. Digeridiots pounding tables and shouting "intellectual property is not property" makes the investment environment even worse.  I mean would you