There was a very, very brief moment from about 2005 to 2011 or so where there was money to be made directly by artists on iTunes or the other music stores where the tracks were like 99 cents each.

But people stopped buying as soon as Spotify became popular, and now any artist that wants to release on Spotify without a label still doesn't make much money.

Relatively “large” truly independent bands like KNOWER are starting to give true home recording a base of proof of functionality.

Power to bandcamp.

Why isn't there some kind of genre music search for all artists without a label, Foss of course. From what I understand, when you're starting out in music, getting people to hear it is the hardest part.

Artists aren't forced to sign a contract with a label. They do it because they want to.

They do it because the label will often invest a million dollars in the artist upfront before the songs are even available for the public to stream.

Good recording studios are expensive to hire. And if you want a video track to go with it... those are even worse.

Ehh, you've got a different but similar problem these days. Before, it was hard to get the word out so even finding new bands was difficult. Now, there are so many artists that you've got to find a way to stand out. Still need marketing. That's what labels provide.