The business model currently being used clearly doesn't work. They need to get things back to how the music business used to work. It worked incredibly well for 50 years. They're giving away music for insultingly low prices now. For something like $12 or $14 monthly, you can have access to the entire back catalog of rock music. That tells everyone they think the back catalog is worthless. One CD should be at least $14. CDs cost that much 20 years ago! Adjusted for inflation, a CD should be over $20. I used to pay maybe $8 for an album in the early 80s. That's $24 now. It was a better deal because concert tickets, even front row, where $12 back then. That's $36 dollars in today's money toes the biggest stars in rock in any seat in the venue, even front row. Add the $36 for ticket and 24 for album and that's $60 for the album and a great seat. You cant even get close to that today. The fans fucked themselves by feeling they were entitled to steal the product of someone else's labor.
Right now there is no marketing machine like there was in the 60's 70's 80's and 90s. There's no financial incentive to dedicate your life to becoming a musician. The end result - we have no rock stars who have made their debut this century. Why would any rational man sacrifice everything and dedicate his entire life to becoming a rock star when he knows they don't make rock stars anymore? They don't make rock stars anymore because there is no marketing machine, no business machine that will market the artist, get his picture in magazines, set up interviews for him in newspapers and radio stations and all the other things that fall under "artist development"/ Pink Floyd's first 6 or 7 albums were failures. If it wasn't for artist development and the record company having patience with and faith in Pink Floyd, they would have been dropped from the label before they ever got their break. They're just one example of many!
Tbh, the way the music industry is going now, I kind of like it.
Not to say there aren't major problems, but having streaming services like Spotify has really opened up a legal way to enjoy as much music as you can handle. For a big music fan like myself, it's big having access to so many of my favorite artists anywhere I go as long as I have a full battery(or a charger if it runs low) legally at an affordable price.
A big thing that kept me from enjoying as many artists as I possibly could when I was younger before my family got a computer and after Napster opened up the flood gates, was, I just didn't have the money to spend on music.
For awhile I was using iTunes to buy music, then I decided, given Spotify has an offline mode, I'd finally combine my MP3 player and phone into one like I always could.
The thing is, more artists now don't make as much money off of record sales or singles, but by touring(too bad I can't see many artists where I live), selling merch(I buy merch all the time) and you can't really blame the way the music industry has gone for the lack of rock stars...
There are still tons of artists who make alot of money, but it's not through record sales anymore, maybe some still buy songs from iTunes or something, but more people use streaming services, that's the way it's gone. People want all of their favorite artists at their fingertips, not in their car or at home in a CD player, but where ever they go. From what I understand, the way Spotify works is, the more hits an artist gets for their music, the more they get from Spotify.
Rock isn't hurting because of the way the music industry has gone, atleast that's not the main reason, it's hurting because it's considered "dated", "old", rap will go through and is already going through this right now, it's been around for close to 40 years or so, depending on when you consider it's inception occurred.
Doesn't mean it'll be gone forever.
The thing is, there are tons of great artists active right now, they just don't get the kind of push from the record companies.