Perhaps I have my own bias, but I never quite get why record labels are always considered bad for musicians.

From my understanding record labels put up a lot of money upfront and profit, sometimes very much, if the artist blows up. I understand this creates a scenario where of many of the artists that become famous are unhappy, because the option contract seems unnecessary after they've made it, but this seems like survivorship bias.

If the record labels weren't good at promotion and production then I think we'd see more self-made artists, which is something Spotify allows.