Yep. Podcasts — especially glorified talk show format ‘casts — and YouTube talk shows/personality programs are where the culture is at the moment. Pop music is way far back in the line—and semi-popular and defiantly non-popular pop music doesn’t even rate. This kind of “content generation” is the present and near future of entertainment.
I mean, Spotify is somewhat important if you’re an aspiring new hip hop artist or someone looking to make a splash in contemporary young people pop or various electronic dance music subgenres...I guess. But mostly it matters if you can get yourself playlisted. And that simply isn’t in the cards for most rock/roots/punk/indie/blues/Americana/whatnot folks because no one is really playlisting that stuff in meaningful ways because you can just listen to the classic examples that match the pictures on the reliced tee shirts you bought from Target (or Nordstrom if yr sassy).
The economics of being a musician were never great. And well before COVID new bands were getting smaller (solos, duos, maybe trios) to better weather the harsh environment of touring and living without the benefit of record contracts/sales and the like. And now that the road isn’t a thing and won’t be for possibly years, shit...
So yeah, it makes all the sense in the world for Spotify and similar to lock up these relatively low production cost personalities when new musical content isn’t driving eyeballs and there’s not gonna be summer festival seasons to build hype and drive interest and there’s a finite amount of old classics for people to pour over and no one (other than
@Help!I'maRock!) even pretends to give a shit about new music. And, like you said, it’s not like musicians are even in a position to negotiate.
Like art house cinema and a well made ice cream soda, pop music in the grand style of the late 20th century is a doomed thing destined to be mourned by people with the ill fortune to live long enough to meet the future.