The majors are still winning at their old game

I recently read a stat that claimed 90% of the music sold on sites like Amazon MP3 and iTunes belongs to the majors (if I could remember where I read it, I'd quote the source). If the stat is accurate, it tells me that the majors are still very good at what they've always been good at, controlling distribution channels. So their game hasn't really changed. The difference this time around is that an independent label or artist can actually do something about it.

I haven't done the research myself but I'm willing to bet that, given the choice, 99 times out of 100 a fan will choose to buy directly from the artist. The problem is, most fans don't have that choice or they don't know they have the choice.

So independents need to do two things: empower themselves to sell directly to their fans and work to educate music lovers in general that they should first seek to purchase music directly from the artist. These two actions will have two immediate effects: a greater slice of the total money spent on music will be spent on independently produced music and the profits garnered by the artist per transaction will dramatically increase.