Record labels give their artists hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps even millions, to produce a record. I think that's being pretty generous, don't you think so? And while the artist does have to pay that back, it's not like the record label is penny-pinching all of their sales and keeping the money in their pocket -- they can't pay artists like the used to because people don't buy the music.
Sorry, you really don't know much about how record contracts work, do you? Did you know that when a label "pays" an artist to produce an album, it's actually a loan? Say they give you a million bucks...that's not a payment, but a loan that the artist is expected to pay back. That's why artists go on grueling concert tours because it's the only way they actually get to keep the majority of the proceeds (and these days, given how anti-music the industry has been, concerts have been bombing left and right, leaving the artist with little to actually make money on).
So when the album is finished and it goes on sale, the proceeds immediately go right back to the record company to pay back that loan. Of course, the labels then add "extras" like marketing costs, management fees, production costs, the whole 9 yards so that even if an album goes platinum, the artist is pretty much left with dirt squat.
In addition, the label owns all copyrights to the songs free and clear in most cases because they hired a lowly Congressional staff member to secretly modify language in a bill to classify all musical works as "work for hire." That means the artist who wrote the song is a mere contracter to works for the label just like any other hourly staff.
And I do mean "hired" because that Congressional staff member inserted the "work for hire" clause without telling any member of Congress and - surprise, surprise - is now a highly paid exec for the RIAA.
Maybe you should educate yourself on how record contracts work before getting this idea that the labels are out there fighting for the livelihood of artists.
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html