There are several musicians I can think of right off the top of my head who still make money without an actual record label, and are able to actually distribute their own music.
Ingrid Michaelson is actually fairly well-known, but she didn't have a record label for at least her first album, Girls and Boys. I'm not even sure if she actually has one now, to be honest. Probably, but you know. Even with that, when she was NOT signed and her mother was her manager, she was able to gig quite regularly, and had her songs picked up by numerous television shows, probably most notably Grey's Anatomy, as that's where many first heard her music.
Julia Nunes is a singer-songwriter who plays ukulele, gigs all over the United States and Europe, sells self-distributed albums and merchandise, and still manages to do pretty well for herself. She's actually played Bonnaroo the past two years, last year on a bigger stage than the first. She's been hand-selected to open for Ben Folds and Ben Kweller, so I'll have to say she's doing all right as an unsigned artist.
So yes - it's quite possible.
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It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
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