The next stage in the unraveling of the music labels death grip on an outmoded business model is at hand: Apple has reportedly signed (via Pure Play Music) a few thousand unsigned artists into iTunes. Combine that with the new Genius piece of iTunes, and suddenly a whole bunch of artists have exposure - without the help of any label:

Distorted Loop is reporting that Apple has signed a deal with Pure Play Music to add their artists to the iTunes Store, accounting for more that 1 million tracks. eMusic, Amazon and Napster are also a part of the deal.

If that holds up, then the loud grinding noise you'll hear is the teeth out in Hollywood.