Only sign a major label deal if: 1. You make radio-driven hit music and your career is dependent upon it.  The majors control radio, you can’t have a hit without them.  But radio means ever less, and the formats other than Top Forty are also-rans paying ever-decreasing dividends.

If you don’t know the labels steal then you’re not in this business.  But the problem is not so much them as it is you.  No one is forcing you to sign on the dotted line.  But you think if your record comes out on Universal or Warner Brothers, you’ve made it.  But there’s no label on a digital download, and just because a product is in the supermarket that doesn’t mean it sells.  And today the supermarket is worldwide, stuffed with tons of goodies.  The avenue to success is not making a deal with the devil, but being really good.  Because if you’re really good the Net can focus attention on you in a heartbeat.  But this usually happens years after you’ve started, when you’re finally in the groove, when you’re worthy of the attention, long after the major label would have dropped you and you would have quit in frustration. Read more at lefsetz.com