"I'll go to clintblack.com," Black says, explaining how a fan would go about it. "I can have a 12-song CD for 12 bucks and guess what - I didn't have to leave the house for the CD."
Black, a member of the Recording Artists Coalition, which is seeking less restrictive record contracts, says labels may become irrelevant if enough artists decide to put out their music directly.
"As the technology changes and the distribution channels evolve, artists are going to become free," he says.
In some ways, musicians already have that power. With the Internet, they can release music through their own Web sites and labels, and market themselves directly.
But except for Prince and a smattering of others, few performers have gone that route.
Even those who have had bad experiences with record labels and who have the name power and resources to release their own work, such as a Mariah Carey, have re-signed with record companies rather than do it on their own.
Some artists say the labels are necessary to make sure the music gets heard.
"You need an umbrella ... you have marketing, you have promo stuff, there's radio relationships, network relationships. It's so much thought and a lot of work that goes into just putting yourself out there," says Ashanti, the r'n'b sensation who has sold more than a million copies of her self-titled debut this year.
"And the money: millions and billions of dollars that go into the smallest things - the photo shoots, the promo materials, the CDs ... everything."
Josie Diels of the still-unsigned group Bouva knows about such struggles firsthand. Lead singer of the six-member band in New York City, she is looking for a label to promote Bouva.
"I would do the independent route if I had my own treasure trove of money," she says.
Danny Goldberg, CEO of the independent Artemis Records, home to such performers as Steve Earle, the Baha Men and Rickie Lee Jones, says record companies will always be needed because they are "the investment bankers of the music business."
"It is a challenge to get artists exposed, and breaking new artists is really hard," he says.