For decades, the record deal has been the Holy Grail for artists aspiring to enter the recording industry. In the wake of the digital revolution, entry barriers into the recorded music market decreased and this has enabled artists to produce, distribute and promote music on a large scale without the help of record labels. Celbrated by the press as the democratisation of art production, belittled by the established recording industry as amateurism, hailed by artists as long-awaited independence, and neglected by the acadmeic community, artist-entrepreneurship warrants a critical in-depth examination. This thesis explores the emergence, practices and implications of artist-entrepreneurship in the digital recording industry with the help of a new data set derived from an online questionnaire of 368 music artists in Australia. Artist-entrepreneurship provides a promising alternative to the traditional model based on selling copyrights to record labels. On the other hand, new challenges for artists are arising, new market intermediaries are entering the scene, and new business models for marketing music are being created.