Being the owner of an indie label, I'm not surprise he is in favour of it. Generally, the only way to become recognized without being backed by one of the major labels is to find a way to distribute music to a lot of people.
The Pirate Bay doesn't do that, obviously, but there are likely torrent sites dedicates to smalltime people, none of the top-100 popular stuff. Anyone know of any?
On a sidenote, I do my best to buy CDs from good local guys whenever possible. I could rip/share some of my favourites if people are interested, I'm sure the bands would thank me for it.