We're sure it qualifies as piling on at this point. Maybe there's something bitter sweet about watching the four major record labels sputter and choke on their DRM-infested, rootkit-hobbled product. In any event, MSN posted a state-of-the-union type article of the big four, and how Internet grassroots-type services are attracting not just independent musicians but top acts such as Paul McCartney and Radiohead.

Trent Reznor is one of those top acts. "I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate," Reznor wrote on the band's Web site on Oct. 8, according to the MSN report. "Exciting times, indeed."

The Big Record Labels' Not-So-Big Future [MSN]