I think labels will continue to play a role, if only for the legacy that they already control. Also, I don't think artists want to have to or should have to be their own record-store-managers. Handling all of that daily grind artist-by-artist is contrary to the fundamental principle of specialization in economics. Lastly, I feel that even if an emerging artist wants to self-start and promote using a blog (which worked just fine for Lily Allen), will they want to handle t-shirt distribution in Australia ten years from now? Is that what guitar-players are struggling to get to?

Incidentally, my startup is all about solving this problem by disengaging the license from the file. Let's see if it works. I have to get it built first.