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.
I’m the kind of person who is very particular about the music I listen to, the wrong music is over stimulating - so I love streaming in that I can curate my playlist and have new music recommended to me based on what I like. I honestly don’t know how I would find new artists if it wasn’t for streaming - not like there’s an indie folk radio station I can just listen to…
I feel bad that the artists don’t get paid much though and I was considering switching to buying albums again, but I think that might make it so I support a few artists more but a lot of artists I like would consequently be supported less.