I totally agree. In fact I'm playing in a band right now, the Signals (http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk -- only demos, no

I totally agree. In fact I'm playing in a band right now, the Signals (http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk -- only demos, no band recordings so far), and what I'm realizing is that, in effect, 100% of the effort needs to come from you until you have a watershed moment, and then a label will begin to court you. And it's not that labels are inherently malicious either; another band I know, Lucky Elephant (http://www.myspace.com/luckyelephant http://www.myspace.com/luckyelephant -- check 'em out, really nice and melodic!), just got a GBP 15,000 promotional advance for their recently released album. The label told them straight-up that there was very little likelihood that they'd ever make their money back. As for your point about the labels falling on their faces: I'm not so sanguine about the future here. In most declining industries, it's the market leaders that fare the best -- in the music business, the majors! The indies are the ones that are screwed, which is sad because historically they've signed the most innovative acts (e.g. Island pre-2000s). Universal music is the only major label to have increased its market share in the last five years. It is not in commercial danger to my knowledge, and is likely to survive the current recession. The same cannot be said for Domino (of Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys fame). My fear is that once all the indies are gone, we'll be left with p-p-p-poker face p-p-p-poker face ad nauseum.