Artists are not society as a whole: they're a special interest. Monopolies effect the entire market, both sellers and buyers. Monopolies have bad effects mostly on those who don't own the monopoly. Artists signing with major labels become part-owners (in a way) of the monopoly good. Of course artists will continue to sign with major labels.

That's a simplistic economic analysis: major lables mostly screw the artists as well, but still, I think my analysis holds a little truth.

But let's get back to the real question: are the market distortions, etc arising from the copyright monopoly worth enough to society in general (not merely some particular set of special interests) to justify it?