This is a big question but I think the real issue is with the artists and the streamers, rather than the listener. Ownership is a problematic concept in many ways, especially with digital media. If you owned all your favourite films on VHS in 1995, that would be borderline useless today. You 'own' it (or rather a licence for a personal copy of it) but there's no real benefit to that ownership once obsolescence is accounted for.
I tend to buy vinyl records or MP3s from Bandcamp for artists I feel need the support - whether they be new acts, or true indie outfits without record deals. But this isn't really sustainable for all artists or listening habits in 2024 and I still do 99%+ of my listening through streaming, including for those artists.
I think streaming and on-demand services are the correct response to the market and consumer needs. The problem comes when the two inevitable conclusions of this market play out...
The consumer wants everything on one service
The artists require competition to set fair and competitive prices
The first point effectively creates a monopoly. The second point requires there to be no monopoly. The only way these two things can avoid being wholly contradictory is if...
The consumer chooses to pay over the odds for their single-service and that service provider passes those profits on to the artist based on a moral duty, rather than an economic requirement (a.k.a. the TIDAL model), or
An external body acts on the market (e.g. a musicians union or a government regulator) to ensure a minimum payment level for licensing
Personally, I can't see either happening in our current economic system but that's not necessarily a bad thing. People will create great art no matter what and those that do it solely for economic return generally produce less authentic stuff. Eventually it will self-correct and innovative, authentic voices will prevail. We just have to exist in the hinterland until then.
David Bowie famously said that he chose to be a musician because he realised it was musicians who were becoming superstars. In another time he would have chosen acting or painting. So, while we wait for the music industry to find an equilibrium, perhaps we will find unique voices will appear in other media. If talent is a zero-sum game then music's loss may be film making's gain
