I can corroborate this experience. As a teenager in the 90s and a young man in the 00s, I barely bought a couple of original CDs in those decades. Most of the

I can corroborate this experience. As a teenager in the 90s and a young man in the 00s, I barely bought a couple of original CDs in those decades. Most of the music I had was pirated (downloaded, or recorded from radio). I would fill my hard drive with 10s of GB of MP3s, then I'd cycle through it via Winamp. And I have no acquaintances with large music collections, unless that music was pirated. Currently, I'm paying for a Spotify subscription AND a YouTube Premium subscription, which is way more than zero $. Artists making money are those performing live, and filling auditoriums and stadiums with people. The kind of artists that have dedicated fans, and that make albums that become collectibles. That has always been the case.