I interact with a lot of small bands on the fringe of the music scene (death metal, thrash, black metal etc) some signed and some not. All but the very large are having a really tough time. While the internet gives them exposure it's not really giving them a revenue stream. Not everyone has the pulling power of Reznor.

A lot of these small bands can't see a future at the moment and whether you like this genre of music or not all the fringe genre's are suffering.

It's hard to see if things are worse in their world then ten years ago but according to them and their publishers things are indeed worse. I wish I knew the answer to this.