Continuing my earlier point, most of the musicians distributing music without a record label are people who couldn’t get a record deal. Artists such as Radiohead, Madonna and Nine Inch Nails have just read the writing on the wall and are trying benefit from first mover advantage.

The revolution normally starts from the bottom: the disenfranchised.

I believe most editors are freelance, the only difference is who takes the risk and pays them.

And you don’t have to convince the bookshop to stock your book, the printer just downloads the content from the internet and it’s ‘printed on demand’.

As for editors, you have a point.

Editors could go freelance.
Authors would then either pay the upfront cost of editing or transfer risk and reduce reward by paying the editor a percentage of sales.

Plus you need an editor and without a publisher the author will be picking up the bill and most authors aren’t getting rich, whereas many bands are quite well off by the time they get to the point where they can choose to pass on a record label. At least that’s my perception.

When you can cheaply print books one copy at a time, authors may not need publishers.

For proof look at what’s happening in the music industry. Does an artist still need a record label?

Now we just need the publishers to make their catalog available - which should be tempting as it has the potential to reduce their printing, distribution and inventory costs.

It’s called the Espresso Book Machine.
New York Public Library has one.

But the economics and speed isn’t quite there yet.