Thanks to streaming, recording industry revenues are back up to pre-internet levels, but musicians are poorer than ever

Yeah I think the music industry was heavily reliant on local shops selling tapes, LPs and CDs. Then those shops became uneconomic when online distribution started. The presence of those outlets pushed a lot of demand for music because people bought music in physical packages for social reasons. They don’t have the same reasons to download, so music labels have lost their business.