I'm glad the music industry existed from the '60s through the '90s. There's no other way the music of a guitar pop band from England like Suede would have ended up in my hands in California without a music industry putting their music out in wide release. Same goes for virtually every non-local band in the modern pop era.
Nowadays, I think the music industry is becoming increasingly less relevant, thanks to the internet. Web sites can easily serve many people, around the world. Web sites can easily function as repositories for new music, with voting systems and tagging systems to allow you to discover music (and for your favourite review sites to discover music). E-commerce makes it a snap for bands to do worldwide business. Clearly, this option currently makes far more sense for established bands, who already have the fame, than for new bands who haven't yet been marketed to hell and back. But I can definitely see a near future where the web-based infrastructure of band websites, repository websites and review websites make it quite possible for even new indie bands to get their music heard.
And all in a much more streamlined, direct manner that removes a corporate "industry" from between the band and the customers (with a commensurate drop in prices of music).
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"Blow your tuneless trumpet, the choice is yours / We don't want the glamour, the pomp and the drums / The Dublin messiah scattering crumbs"
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