Total bullshit. Having been a musician for decades and having dealt with music label reps... you get ripped off, at ALL levels. The labels throw you scraps to keep you on the hook but they're taking all the real money. It's only when musicians have the financial savvy and balls to start their own label that they start making any money. But then they drop off the map because the big name labels control what gets on the radio and MTV. The Metal Screen is a great example. Metal is doing great, with almost no radio play at all. You don't see them anywhere and Music awards are given to shit bands like Metallica every year while the real interesting stuff is being recorded in sophisticated home studios and released on Japanese, eastern Europe or even self owned labels. They're touring, making money, doing well... but you'll never hear a damned thing about it because the labels don't want them to steal market share.
You've got bands like Symphony X, Opeth, even Iron Maiden filling soccer stadiums, yet you never hear about it. Iron Maidens last album in 2012 sold more copies than all of their other albums combined, yet you hear nothing about it.
This isn't just happening in metal either, it's every genre. There's been an explosion in music in the past 10 years. The labels don't like it because it's fracturing the industry. They want maybe 5 kinds of music so it's easy to control. What it's turning into is art... and they don't like that.