Way back in the pre-YouTube days of 1998, a musician couldn't survive without a record company unless he wanted to stick to the coffee house circuit. A lot has changed in 10 years. Musicians can now turn to the Internet to promote and sell their work, and connect directly with fans. When you can do it yourself on a national level, why should artists sign up with a middle man like a record company that will take a cut of their profits?

Forbes recently sat down with Jermaine Dupri, the Grammy-winning songwriter, producer and rapper, who has worked with performers ranging from Mariah Carey to Jay-Z to Alicia Keys, to try to answer that question. Dupri, 35, is now the president of Island Def Jam's Urban Music division. Here, he discusses how YouTube has taken the place of radio, how record companies need to do a better job of distributing music and why there needs to be the equivalent of a stock market crash in the music industry.