I like to think that if Ludwig van Beethoven were alive today, he'd be a social media madman, bypassing his patrons and financers and independently reaching his audience. He'd be thriving in creative and financial freedom. I also like to believe that the hundreds-perhaps thousands-of artists who have gone broke from bad publishing deals and outrageous recoupables would have preferred the option of having direct access to their audience and cutting out the middle man. And yet, they didn't have that option. Their artistic endeavors began in a time when other people in the music world held the...