Streaming services have made music both better and worse

They have made better by democratizing it and making more kinds of music accessible to more people on demand.

It‘s worse because music can be produced and uploaded by, at best, mediocre talent, and artists get paid a pittance. For every hundred songs, 3-5 might be “ok” and one or two are “keepers” if you’re lucky.

Gone are the days where bands have a string of bangers and albums loaded with great songs. A lot of music just seems to be thrown at the wall to see what sticks. There were a lot of downsides to major label controlled music industry, but they also made some great bands.