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One thing I've never understood about the music industry regarding the marketing argument - why don't the really big, successful artists just pay for their own marketing? Hire a team to do it for them and skip out the labels entirely. They would surely make more money and have total control of their music rights.

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Marketing companies tend to specialise, think of the big labels as music marketing companies if you like, they have expertise and relationships (radio, physical and digital distributors) that a generic advertising firm doesn't.

The smarter people in the music industry know that their future is dependant on staying close to the artists. The tables are turning, in the past the artists served the labels, in the future the labels will serve the artists.

I guess I was more meaning the artists (or even group of artists) hiring their own marketing people, i.e. not contracting out to an agency, but actually having their own staff, probably people that have worked at labels before. No idea if that could ever work...

It's a chicken and egg thing. Only established artists could afford that, and you need marketing to get established.

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