Music is a self eating beast these days. Any new artist is competing with not only all contemporary artists but all past artists too, since its so trivial to just go on spotify and find a playlist with the "best alternative albums of all time" and find all the usual suspects of the last 25 years or so. It's really unprecedented for old material to be at an even pedestal as new material. These older already monied acts tend to get the bigger venues in town and tour all the time too, so it extends beyond the digital realm. Not to mention how many small act sized venues have closed and no longer exist so there are even fewer potential opportunities for such bands compared to the arena filling acts.
My local music venue has ‘indie’ size of couple hundred max. But they mostly program ‘tribute’ bands or ‘classic’ acts because apparently that is the most safe to sell.
Tonight I was at a Melvins show in Amsterdam. It is their 40th anniversary your, amazing! I’ve also seen Einstürzende Neubauten a few months back. Back in early 90s everybody was talking how the Stones were still playing for so long. But nowadays so many bands are still going.
