"I'll use Frank Zappa as the best example of a man who never sold himself out yet managed to have a good fan base anyway."

Frank Zappa is one of my heroes for the reason you've stated. He did come up when the record companies were a lot more experimental than now. The downfall of the record companies going on now they've done to themselves. I think the whole industry will loosen up with downloads becoming more mainstream. Selling a single tune online is kinda like the single '45's that were big here in the '50's and early '60's and still available in Reggae and dance music.
Online streaming of music programs has also made a lot available that otherwise wouldn't be heard worldwide. I burn a lot of cds from different websites that djs post downloads on.