My lukewarm take is that it's conspicuous consumption.

Music is cheaper than it's ever been for the consumer and segregation between genres or bands is non-existent on music streaming.

It's hard to socially signal when everyone can afford to stream and the search bar can show you Sabrina Carpenter just as easily as RYM or /mu/core.

However , you can socially signal if you spend money on an iPod, DAP, better headphones, physical media etc.