I believe that not too long from now, record labels are going to become much more useful. I predict small labels representing a more closely bound collective of musicians, sharing a similar quality, much more like DHR than even Gotham or Alternative Tentacles. It will be important because labels will become more of a "brand," assuming all the pros and cons that go along with that such as brand loyalty. I think the more successful ones will focus on representing a fairly small group of artists, as they will serve less as collective purchasing/bargaining units as helping to establish a shared public image and trust. I think many arts, digital ones at least, will head in this direction. On a very small scale this has already been going on, with collectives, cooperatives and small indie labels. But market saturation will send people looking for some method of finding the marbles in the oatmeal, and I think labels will be it.
Not to discount tagging. Like CDDB and virus / spam DBs, I think a combination of metadata and a distribution standard (as opposed to a centralized DB) will help people to tag content in a way that makes it much easier to sort through. But it won't hold the credibility that labels, or collectives, or whatever these groups become will provide.
Just saying.