[krylon]

That is a very good point!

I remember reading an article by Courtney Love, where she explained how her band got a record contract worth $ 1,000,000 and ended up owing money to the record company which happily billed the band for things like renting a record studio or making a music video. In other words, things that one would consider a record company's job.

There are models for supporting artists directly, like bandcamp. There is something like Kickstarter for musicians where people can participate in financing an album. I vaguely remember Younger Brother using it for their third album.

So there is a glimmer of hope, at least for music. I don't think crowdsourcing would work very well for movies, at least not for 100-million-dollar blockbusters (then again, one could argue, that a bigger budget does not necessarily make for a better movie; maybe it even makes it harder, because now you have to appeal to a wider audience).