Because of the pinch in vinyl sales, vinyl labels are much less open to taking music which doesn't fit in with any one sound or genre
Is that not more to do with the retaillers, and by association the labels?

why not blame the countless amount of people out there, that used to be bedroom djs who have stopped buying records to instead concentrate on their own productions and live sets...
I thought the same for a while now. Teaching DJ in college isnt what it was. Hardly ANY DJs coming through, although funnily e-muff the rock kids are MUCH more interested in it than they were as its more exotic.

you're kidding yourself if you think seriously in this day and age that you can live just from writing a few techno tunes, and spinning tunes in a few clubs now and then... the only people doing this are the "scene leaders", who have been there since the rave scene, and I suspect that these people have their fingers in many pies...
Look at the hardcore scene, those boys have been running stuff there for years and years.

given the commercial pressures these days, most labels want sure fire hits...
Surely most COMMERCIAL labels? I can believe there are not people who dont want to put out stuff. Indies cant have lost their love either?

in the late nineties, we used to say "everyone wants to be a DJ", nowdays that has morphed into "everybody wants to be a Producer/Live act/net label owner", like it or hate it, you have to live with it,
Live with it! Love it! Ride it!

Cheers mark ;)