Hero: Trail of Dead

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are the latest band to ditch their label and go it alone, which is not heroic, per se. Radiohead, Madonna and Nine Inch Nails have already done it bigger. But Trail of Dead gets an IWBYB hero tag for pointing out the other thing that’s wrong with record labels.
My primary problem with labels is the stubborn pricing. I vow to buy CDs until the day I die (or, more likely, the format does.) But the industry sure doesn’t make it easy. I have to ask myself why I pay for something I can get for free, just to have another jewel case to throw on the pile. If they want to encourage people to pay for music, they should try, you know, encouraging people to pay for music!
But the other thing that is wrong with the labels is their shoddy treatment of musicians, elegantly laid out here. In order to remain a middleman, you should make it a priority to take care of at least one of the sides. In his hilarious diatribe against superdouche Jimmy Iovine ("he's had a great dating record, he just won't have the next TOD record"), head Dead Conrad Kelly describes their unsatisfying experience with being signed.
The best part: this was posted on their band site on the Interscope page! Ironic, maybe. Heroic, absolutely.