It's been like that for almost 15 years.
It's actually better now than it was in the early and mid 2000s - the internet has made it possible for artists to connect directly with the people and as a result there has been quite a lot of good music that has not passed through the filters of the major labels and, more importantly, was not made with the idea of appealing to them as the music that a lot of the technically underground but in realty hoping to become mainstream artists have been producing.