Missing from these considerations is how Internet democratized artists' access to a public. What are the numbers here? E.g. how many bands have a significant following today compared to the old days? And how many bands earn money, maybe not enough to live fully on their music but still significant, compared to the pre-Internet era?
Midlist artists maybe suffer from something akin to increased competition?
This would be like watching senior developer salaries go from $110k/yr to $20k/yr and saying "missing from these considerations is the thousands of new Themeforest developers who are making $10k/yr writing Wordpress plugins".
Midlist artists maybe suffer from something akin to increased competition?