I work în the music industry, so hopefully should be able to show a little insight. At the moment, purchasing music in every single form is down, except vinyl. CDs, album downloads, track downloads, everything is down. Vinyl still only comprises 6% of the industry sales, so even though that's up it doesn't really make a dent. Streaming is going through the roof, and while this presents a huge opportunity, the way it is currently handled means even the big artists make next to nothing per stream. I'm talking hundredths of a penny. Even someone as famous, with as many tracks as Lady Gaga makes tens of pounds, if that, a year from spotify, for example.
What this means is that recording and releasing music is becoming unsustainable. It is expensive, you have to take into consideration equipment, experience, it is as designed and manufactured as a chair or shampoo and requires all the steps that it takes to get them market ready. Each song has to be written, session musicians hired, recording studios paid for, sound engineers, producers, it has to be mixed and mastered... You have to pay all of those people to employed, and for all their experience. It has to be marketed, plugged for radio etc. etc. and on top of that the publishers and labels, a and r people take their cut too. Even when CDs were the norm, when you bought a £10 album, the artist (assuming they were the songwriter, which was unusual) they would be lucky to make £2 from your £10. In th streaming age that seems very generous! Please remember that all the work, if not more, that you were prepared to pay £10 in the past took place for the tracks being released today, except there is no physical copy! Is the CD and the case really worth £10?
Now, when you are as successful as Jay-Z, even the small sliver of the profits he gets adds up to an awful lot. He also is a very astute business man and gets a much bigger portion than your average artist. It also has the effect (affect?) that the labels can't afford to take a risk with artists anymore, which is why a lot of the music we hear in the top 40 etc. sounds uninnovative and similar, the labels know they will sell and make a profit.
However, this means for your smaller artists it is simply unaffordable. Free streaming has also created this mindset that music should be free, and I've also seen an increase in venues excepting musicians to play for publicity. You can't pay your rent with publicity! I understand that it leaves a bad taste to see these unimaginably wealthy, successful, attractive, famous people saying "it's so unfair", and I often feel jealous myself, and I know how the industry works and personally believe it is unfair! But the fact is, if my artists, even the ones who can sell out tours across the country (and you've still never heard of them), stood up and said "this needs to change!", no one would care. The only people who can change it are the powerhouses of the industry.