>Someone please tell me what the record labels have done to deserve 75%

1)Make a really good quality recoding. I know it is possible to do it without a label, and I know that it has even been done, but the vast majority of non-label recordings are really bad.

2) Really good distribution system. I know, you didn't find your music from a record company. But, having a record companies resources behind you makes your chance of hitting it big orders of magnitude greater.