We're in 2011/2012 now and why artists need middle-man and record lables or orgies like RIAA ? Seriously, uploading directly to cloud stores without middle man saves a lot of money. Promotion is not that hard, i mean it's not that biggie. Atleast for genres like Trance, New Age, House, Techno, Drum n Bass and Ambient, there's hardly any benefit from record labels. Especially when they take 60% cut of profit for the sake of fame.