In this interview Amber Sweeney mentions that the record labels are apparently still making good money. I doubt streaming services like Spotify are innocent victims in all of this but also suspect they're being scapegoated.

Can't remember if it was Rick Beato or one of his guests who discussed some of the ways labels take advantage of artists. One example given was something called 'producer-managers' who encourage studios to nickel and dime the label for every little thing that goes into producing an album, which then gets paid out of the artist's earnings. Sounds like a pretty shady industry.

https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6692401?episode=21913902618

"We went platinum, we toured for a year, we came back and Warner Brothers told us that we owed them two million dollars. And on top of that, we owed them another record."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymcb42zeWVk

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nostr:npub1gke42gwrz2ja5np9tpcr449785hx6zxgzf2329x8584h4d06puzqg33xp3 Bandcamp is fren ❤️