Is self-publishing a better option for musicians today?

So I was thinking about the music industry and how I should know more about it.
What I found myself wondering about was changes in the music industry. Changes caused by culture, trends, and advances in technology; actually, what I’m specifically interested in is changes in the way musicians are working now, as I am hearing about more artists (musicians, vloggers, YouTubers, webcomic writers, authors, etc.) now working independently from big companies. Or in other words, self-publishing.

One of my favorite hard rock groups, Red, just recently announced changes to their career plans–they have dropped their record label that had sold their music for the past 12 years (which was a Sony group I think), and now they are producing on their own. They re-made their website, as well as created a page on GoFundMe.com so that fans can support them. So one thing that will change is how often they will release songs, because they will be able to release songs whenever they want (probably one to two songs every month they said), instead of waiting every  2-3 years to release an album.  Although it seems like a risky move because it’s a change, I’m excited to see how it goes and hear what they do.

So now I have some questions. Who are some other artists (musicians specifically) who self-publish? Are there a lot of instances recently of bands switching from a record label to self-publishing? How big (popular) does one have to be to do this successfully? Can newer musicians start out this way now?