I'd really love someone to do a deep-dive into the long-term future of how the hell musicians are going to make a living.

Live music is increasingly so expensive people have to pick and choose their shows more.

Streaming doesn't support artists.

Physical media/merch isn't keeping up, and anyway that kind of material product is not good for the planet.

Digital sales seem to have limited future.

But demand for music, live and recorded, is enormous (or, in the case of live, will be once the pandemic nightmare is over).

And yet I've seen little sensible written how, long-term and in a sustainable way, artists - even popular ones - can make a living out of it.

Is it self-streaming, the way folk like Matt Heafy and Herman Li have proved so successful at?

Is it Patreon-type arrangements?

Is it simply that Spotify et al are going to have to start paying more or face pushback?

And will that money come from subscribers, and/or will the money pumped into podcasts need to be reallocated?

Or will someone like Bandcamp come up with a rival platform where the model allows you to stream a load but then be marketed directly at, and encouraged to buy higher quality listening to stuff you listen to more than once or twice?

I have no idea myself, but it's completely obvious that what's happening now is unsustainable.

And most of what I've read suggested as "the future" seems to have huge flaws, either in its sustainability or in how realistic it sounds.