Just to quote Jeff Booth, prices fall to the marginal cost of production. It’s much cheaper to produce an album today than the 80s. Any bedroom artist can put out a high quality track with minimal gear, granted they have the extra skills.

Also, when buying a $10 album, you’re paying for all the songs on the album, even if you only listen to a few. Streaming basically bypasses that, which cuts a significant amount of revenue from B-sides.

I do think it’s much harder to be a middle class musician than before. Much more work and skill sets are required, along with fierce “competition”