Also, the distributor would never have control of the recordings, only the label would have such control. As such, the label is the one receiving the iTunes and Snocap payments. If the artists is still in recoupment (for other records other than the licensed one), it’s possible the label is cross-collateralizing to recoup these costs, and that’s why he’s not seeing any of the revenue from iTunes – but again, that would be in the details of any agreeement the artist signed.

Also, to prevent a label/artist from uploading their catalog and then all of a sudden changing their minds, some dig. distributors have failsafes in place that require that your catalog be available with them for a certain length of time before it can be removed. That might be the case here, but again only the label would know for sure.

As far as the Snocap store showing up on the MySpace page – you can remove/hide that by going to Edit Profile>Account Settings>Music Store>Hide music store.

I’d recommend against an artist doing their own digital distribution (Full Disclosure: I run a music distribution and marketing company), but not just because it’s my job There’s so much more to digital distribution than just getting your music on iTunes that having a dedicated party to handle the complexities is a great advantage and allows an artists to focus on being an artist. That’s not to say that an artist shouldn’t educate himself/herself about the process – but building a good team of people who can help with the business side (be that within a traditional label structure or without) is the surest path to success, IMHO.

I do hope that the artist in question finds a positive resolution to this and soon. Flick, if you or the artist in question would like to contact me off this comment board, I’d be happy to help in any way that I can.