As an artist, I objected to streaming for many reasons. […] With streaming, the person who wrote the song gets paid, but those who performed on the record get very little or nothing. The digital age has made it possible to cut out the original artists from the profit chain. With that happening, there really was no reason for artists to try to create music if they couldn’t make a living from it.
The industry’s answer to the artists’ loss of revenue was for the artists to make their living by just doing live performances. That was Silicon Valley’s answer, too. We’re giving away your music, taking away your income from selling your recordings, but you can make a living by playing live. In 2017, the artists who actually created the music got just 12 percent of the music industry’s $43 billion in revenue. This is the new age of digital music.

– Neil Young