I agree it's mostly rubbish now.  I wrote that article in 2001, when “The Wisdom of Crowds” was not really in effect online yet.<p>Still, in many places in the music industry, an artist is taken much more seriously when they are represented by a company (whether label, agency, manager, etc) - that communicates that the artist is not just one of the 2 million amateurs on MySpace.<p>That subtle difference in perception and image actually changes how people listen.<p>Read this great Brian Eno quote about that: <a href="http://musicthoughts.com/t/112" rel="nofollow">http://musicthoughts.com/t/112</a>