Bands only raelly make money when they tour and on merch. Radiohead released there last album on a "you chose what you pay" basis - you could download it for free if you wanted as they self released it. They made more money from that than the greatest hits album that they were contractually obliged to release by their record label.
I know that. But on the other hand, Radiohead has a large, loyal fangroup which will buy a turd in a CD box if it has Radiohead on it - small time bands can't do the same approach because who is going to pay anything for an album made by a band you've never heard of?
The part about making money on tour is also debatable. It depends if the bands have their own equipment, their own sound engineers, their own minions to put up the stage etc. If you have none of this, you're lucky to break even after the gig. Also the management takes a big part of the cake at gigs because of the publicity they spread via commercials etc.
Also the good old days when a label would find an artist, and say "Here is a 8 year deal, within these 8 years we require you to release 4 albums, here are the keys to the studio". Today if you don't have your own studio you're fucked, regardless of label - because you have to pay the label for using their studio, even though you're a signed artist. It makes fuckall sense.