On the otherhand, there are now a million indie labels, and lots of success stories from people using the internet.
Exactly. As long as there is free competition among labels (i.e. music producers) there will be continually lower prices (i.e. better contracts) for musicians.
And the "million indie labels" have brought much more competition.
I would say overall it is a great time to be a recording artist.
It's a great time to be a recording artist and be self sufficient. If you want to be the next U2 (or if you are U2) it's rather difficult and will remain so.
People speak about disruption. This industry is ripe for it, but it won't happen until a lot of the past is weeded out through attrition and better players take hold. It'll take an inversion in corporate structures.
Right now its too easy to never sign a band and just mine catalog for a long, long time. Hence the value in publishing assets, and the value in mechanical for catalog.
I also think the Internet is overhyped in terms of letting indie artists get heard. It makes a great news story but it's still incredibly rare, possibly even rarer than getting major label contract.
I'd say more competition at high levels is good, there's too much at the smaller level, and the web makes it easy for any schmuck to release music no one cares about. There has to be a better way!
When I was younger I used to be one of the schmucks releasing music no one cared about online so I'm allowed to say that haha.
These are small artists and small labels who often record music because they love to do it, and they chose to do it in whatever way is most comfortable for them. Not everyone in the music industry is in it for the profit.