It was the emergence of iTunes that killed off unauthorised sharing - because the product was available at a reasonable price in the way people wanted it.

The heyday of albums, bands, 20 dollar cds is over. But music has become less special less mainstream and people are less likely to identify themselves by subgroups formed around a music type. Young people are not on mass claiming to be Punks, goths, hippies, metal fans, disco heads, something new etc. Which has slowed down the evolution of music.

That’s a niche. Not mainstream.

I had to explain it to several others students in 2001. That is not “was mainstream in the late 90s”. That’s “was breaking out” at best.