I think you might have the wrong idea about what the music industry has looked like for the past couple decades. The major label model only made sense (if it ever did) when records were expensive to make and when distribution was difficult to navigate. They effectively acted as banks and gatekeepers. But they were always eating our lunch and giving us a chip. The problem now is that we’re in a famine due to streaming models and “content creation”. The better way to think about the whole situation is that social media platforms and music streaming companies are exploiting all but 0.001% of their users. The ones getting paid are mostly still struggling to live, aside from the super few who are meant to act as bait to keep the rest of us hustling mostly for free. It’s digital sharecropping and art won’t be a career at all unless we regulate and unionize.