I started The Tip Sheet in the 90s to keep enthusiasm for great music alive. Back then we had over ten thousand visits a day and loads of tips about great tunes and artistes. I was pushed out of the music industry by Surrey Police and Max Clifford (and the baby new False Allegations Industry, before they became the monster they are today). But the Tip Sheet thrived as people still loved great music and, more important, the "behind the scenes" of it - encouraging, promoting, breaking, playing talent.
Still loads of threads and posts and visits.
Today? Virtually none. Sales are down in value (up in quantity - at 2p per download). Stars have disappeared (remember Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson?). Global music can be summed up in two words. Ed Sheeran (who I must meet).
And this forum? Every day, SpamBot beats the filter and a few Russian based bits of Spam get through (like the US election). Which one of our board keepers erases. Virtually no enthusiasm for music and those which arrive are ignored.
Sad.

The way I see it, the majors have shares in Spotify, the more plays they get on the platform the more money they make, therefore the more they put out there. The Friday new music playlist has around 50 new tracks a week, that's an insane number of releases per week and we're only counting the ones that make this particular playlist.

The majority are by unknowns, the labels are putting them out with social media promotion at no particular cost so it's just become a numbers game.

It's the perfect business model because it fuels the lifestyle of the young. Everything is free/on-tap and instantly disposable. Teens stick in earphones, switch on a Spotify playlist and stream hour upon hour of music which they're not really listening to and don't care for, but they're content as it's fulfilling their "heard that, what's next?" desire.

One of the issues is the disappearance of the centre or point of reference.

I was having coffee today in a cafe. The soundtrack was completely soundalike and indistinguishable Latin music. Nonetheless two of the patrons were mouthing the words. There is a clearly a healthy scene there, but one that is tiny in each country and goes completely under the radar. as JK has pointed out numerous times, the "official" chart is completely irrelevant. All the various genres and sub-genres (anyone hear of Vaporwave?) can exist in perfect isolation from each other.

I think one of my worries is the seeming lack of executive interest. Music is a wonderful area for business and creativity - and you do not have to be a creator to enjoy it. But I don't see new people who really love copyrights and promotion and recording and marketing and managing. But this could be because I'm old and out of it. Mike - you specifically love lyrics. I consider lyrics to be an art form; as much as poetry or novels or painting. But are there publishers who encourage it or critics who examine them?