Very good point.

Very good point wisdom

Check out what Marillion have done since they left the mainstream.
They do it all themselves.
Writing their 17th album atm

Umm they do charge 9.99 for cds. You need to learn how to shop and not waste your money at places like Barnes and Nobles.

The Carter 4 was selling for 9.99 at Target.

In the past, there was a need for record labels, because there was no feasible way in which acts could communicate directly with their fans which was cost effective.

Now, audio-editing software is readily available to be illegally downloaded, it's completely likely that DAW can be purchased, and fans can be directly involved with the artists for no cost at all.

I feel like the use for record labels has been all but used up; anyone with the desire to play music can now do so on the internet.

It's not necessarily a bad thing either; there's such an abundance of new music readily available that music aficionados are now able to take advantage of it and find new acts they're interested in.

If anything, I feel as though it's more of a renaissance than anything.

I think that it allows for more artistic freedom not being with a record label. If you are really devoted to your music and treat it like art you won't let others manipulate it so they can make money of you.

But the key thing is how well known do you want to be, that can require a lot of work if you want a larger audience of listeners.

Do people still visit radio stations these days and pop in their music?

That's a good point. The only problem is, things don't really get big anymore. I mean there's always the odd Kanye West, etc. But, generally, we have an industry that pushes for a very select few huge acts, a few hundred proxy acts they can cycle through weekly, and millions who just get screwed.

A lot of the choice to not sign to a label is economical as many self produced, self recorded, self managed bands have flourished. Even if they don't flourish, they take home a much larger percentage of the profit.