There's no nice way to say this .....
There is no nice way to say what follows, so I will not even try to sugar coat it.
Unfortunately, the past situation -- where the record companies, being the only people having the wherewithal to distribute music from artists to people, were able to set prices -- resulted in recorded music being massively over-valued. To the point where even the artists started believing that a song might be worth more than a few pence.
It's rather like the situation when Perkin's Artificial Mauve became available, for a fraction of the cost of the shellfish-based dyes that used to be the only stable purple pigments. Suddenly, purple clothing was affordable to everyone And if your whole business model depended on purple dye being expensive and difficult to obtain, then it was no longer sustainable.
Unfortunately, making music probably isn't a sustainable way of earning a living anymore, because other people can make copies of it far too cheaply. That isn't something that can be stopped, either. Even if copy-prevention was not mathematically impossible, there would still be a deep-rooted instinct in all gregarious predators which, in humans, manifests as a pathological loathing to paying the full asking price. (In dogs, it manifests as preferring the taste of exactly the same food from someone else's plate.)
And whilst I understand that musicians have to eat, I don't for one second accept this as implying that making music has to pay enough in and of itself for you to be able to afford to eat. So if you, as a musician, can't live with the simple fact that many people aren't going to pay for your music, or if you are so desperate to make sure that nobody gets a copy of your work without paying you for it, then I'm afraid your only option is not to make any music in the first place.
I can't say the music industry wasn't nice to have around, while it lasted. But it's been rendered unsustainable by developments elsewhere. It's been a blast; but the thing about all parties is that eventually they come to an end. All that remains to say is so long, and thanks for all the records.