I don’t necessarily think that because the record companies will disappear, that all intermediaries between artist and consumer will disappear. You’ll always have publicists, producers, promoters, etc. But the main raison d’etre of the record labels — i.e. “we can distribute music to hundreds of thousands of people, and you can’t” — is rapidly disappearing.

So you still have filters and intermediaries, but they’re no longer in the employ of these megacorporations, but in the direct employ of the artist. A meaningful power shift, I think.

Oh, and this shift is going to happen to book publishing too. No question.

I don’t think that the current situation is working, but neither do I think that complete disintermediation between artist and consumer is the nirvana that you make it out to be. Do you also advocate self-publishing for writers? Why not when you could so easily put up a website with a simple online store for the public to buy PDF downloads or a printed copy by mail?

The public uses publishers and bookstores to help present them with stuff that isn’t complete crap. The system sometimes lets us down, but it generally works most of the time. The public uses record labels, music stores (even iTunes), and radio stations in the same way. The system generally works and the system produces artists that sell many millions of albums.

I don’t think that the system of record labels and their A&R activities is going to go away. What I do think will happen is that the public and the record labels will renegotiate how music is purchased and played electronically over the next few years. The record labels will continue to provide a valuable service in finding and promoting artists that the public will enjoy. As long as they continue to do that, the method of distribution will not change the industry as much as one might think.