Yeah but if you erased all record companies, how would anyone get to know who the bands are so people downlaod the songs anyway! It's the investment $$$ from the record company that gets a band noticed inthe first place (at least on a level large enough to get REAL record sales). if every artist was left to having to go grass roots then the only bands you'd ever hear of would be the ones with either:
a) rich members who had $$$ to self promote or,
b) businessperson members who raised angel capitol to promote with.
I'm not saying record companies are the "good guy" but let's not bash it totally out of perspective. For every band they spend $500,000 promoting that sells millions of those $0.50 per to produce albums, there's 10 bands they spend $500,000 that go nowhere.
You ever read billboard? Look at the number of executive jobs changing hands in the industry every month. The guys and gals who do the signing of the bands are constantly in flux because it's hard as hell to pick a true "winner" consistently.