It only works if people know to search for you, like the Counting Crows.
The nice part about actual radio is that it can give unknown artists airplay (and people will actually listen to it).
The nice part about actual radio is that it can give unknown artists airplay (and people will actually listen to it).
What happens far more often is that the big labels that are paying (directly or indirectly) get to decide what gets played. And listeners are forced to choose between a handful of intentionally-overlapping stations, each of which is pushing, primarily, an unfortunately small number of "hits".
While bittorrent itself is not a medium that lends itself to discovery, it does at least serve any non-trivial subset of taste and isn't as easily gamed as radio play and shelf space.
Smaller bands advertising via internet route still have YouTube, Soundcloud, etc. I've bought a few albums as a result.
Also, with the proliferation of smartphones, a significant group choose to listen off their own devices rather than slog through yet another pop song + advertising.
Just looking at new uploads, looking at top lists, browsing by tags, and going through by genre yields new finds. It's easy to listen to new/unfamiliar artists risk free, and most passionate music lovers do find a way of getting money back to the artists. At least in my own experience this is the case. I'm sure there are people who are 100% freeloaders, but I wonder if they'd have bought anything ever anyway.
At Presto.fm we're working on a different solution to the problem, by creating a way to discover and stream new music using personalized radio stations seeded with the listener's existing favourite artists or genres. (A bit like some existing services but with a focus on niche artists and a deep catalogue of music).
Presto.fm currently uses music content from YouTube, which is licensed under Google's agreements with the major labels and the NMPA, so that artists can receive royalties from the ads included in player.
Many independent artists also upload their own music for free, just as they do with Soundcloud, etc, as they recognise it as a great way to reach new audiences.
Not to mention file sharing technologies such as direct connect and soulseek that lets you browse everything a user shares which is another way of discovering new content. You can search for something that you like and hopefully discover people with similar taste and find new stuff in their collections.
Never had that problem with torrents...