The Major Label Model Those wishing for the total disintermediation of the major labels need to think again. The major labels are not likely to disappear from this online future. Firstly, they own all that back catalog representing nearly a century of recorded music. Secondly, they know something about marketing music to consumers. Sure, record deals are incredibly egregious from the artist's perspective.
Most musicians never see any real money from artist royalties.
And most musicians never even have access to a record deal anyway. But those artists that are on an established label do undeniably benefit from the significant investment that the majors make in artists' careers by financing, marketing, promotion, tour support and videos. While the Internet does provide a previously unavailable outlet for artists to connect directly with listeners, there is something to be said for the filtering process that a label provides to the consumer who would otherwise be faced with a virtually overwhelming mass of possibilities. In fact, it is difficult to conceive how recordings could be marketed and promoted solely by the online system without some kind of filtering system. There are sure to be interesting developments in the next year or two in the establishment of software and services that filter and organize the music choices for consumers.