While I agree with the sentiment that recorded music has been devalued to all hell, implying that an artist racking up 4M Spotify streams every month is living

While I agree with the sentiment that recorded music has been devalued to all hell, implying that an artist racking up 4M Spotify streams every month is living off of $1160 a month is a bit disingenuous. If you're pulling those numbers, and know what you're doing, you will almost always have opportunities to make (much) more money doing shows and placements. Additionally: while the distribution of musical success was and still is bimodal, thanks to the fragmentation of culture caused by the Internet there is a growing middle creative class.