You can't put the Genie back in the bottle. We could wish away atomic power but wants the technology became invented, it was over, there was nothing to be done but to accept it. To build it. To figure away not to self-destruct with it. The same goes for all forms of digital distribution of everything from newspapers to music.
Music, newspapers, books, movies, television, have left the control of the distributors and there is nothing anybody can do but harness what is left of it.
The received wisdom is that around the time of Napster, the music industry had the opportunity to decide their own fates but that isn't true, Digital distribution is like riding a wild bull, at some point you are going to get tossed on your butt. At some point, music will be free or close to it and, while counter-intuitive in every imaginable way, musicians won't be paid for their recordings. I would say preteens today will consider paying for music an archaic concept.
The sorry is that musicians will stop performing. Maybe some. But there is a side effect, and that is a leveling off the playing field. Much like rock nyc woke up one day and said, hey, we don't need any resources to run a music website, so musicians will run their own business and make money on auxiliary matters. They'll have no choice.
I pay $10 a month for Spotify and have it on my cell and two pcs. When I have suggested this to other people as the deal of the century they think I'm crazy. They don't spend $10 a month on music, why would they pay $10 a month for a subscription to a streaming site. And they are, of course, right.
Pre-teens use YouTube, they don't need ANYTHING from any one.
What this means is that Spotify (and other streaming devices) are transitional tools. The recording business is stil being figured out and it will takes years to be figured out. Among the problems is the industry getting some of their problems wrong. The reason for soft CD sales had as much to do with the recession and the lack of any major stars as it did with digital distribution. If Taylor Swift is selling 5M copies of her last album, there is certainly people buying them.
And as far as rock bands are concerned. If Black Keys or Coldplay don't want to put their music on Spotify, the chances are excellent that people who use Spotify won't buy them. For me, for the most part, it isn't either /or, I have too many options.I didn't buy either, though I did buy the Metallica/Lou Reed and Tom Waits albums.
In the end, rock bands who dream of the rewards of a Bruce Springsteen or U2, will have difficulty getting it.