He could make a profit with a smal percentage or via registration or per publish.

Problem is alot of artists who are in deals will not have the rights to there music to sell this way and those that do pay high percentages online in general, so viable for new talent in some ways.

We shall see.

Whether or not Megabox itself is a good thing, there's every reason to want to use a middleman when distributing music. Do you enjoy setting up web servers, employing web designers, handling CC transactions, selling ad space, etc? Or do you really enjoy making music and don't mind giving away a 10% slice to have someone else do all that?

I run a small music web server as a favour to a friend[1], and honestly it's a pain in the neck to manage it. If we could hand the whole lot over to whatever is the next MySpace, then we would.

[1] http://circulus.org

Not necessarily the next myspace, but bandcamp.com may be what you're looking for

Bandcamp is a fantastic service that doesn't get nearly enough mention in these kinds of conversations. They've really already perfected this direct to fan model. They've even implemented a merch store into the service, allowing you to do all of your business through it.

The profit model is upside down for him compared to the labels, though. The artists get 90%, rather than 10%.

Oh, I don't doubt it. But it's still not 'direct' if there's a middleman.

I don't disapprove of using middlemen. They exist for a reason. I just disapprove of buzzword-y claims that aren't true. Tell it like it is. It's still just as exciting.