long hair and a guitar. They did the same all through the 70s, 80s and 90s.  That's what they did during  Seattle's Grunge Bubble.  Historically  the companies that tried to be selective, pick the stars were no more successful than the companies that were not selective.  From this record companies learned to spread their bets around. In this way record companies have long  resembled hedge funds, VC funds  or "black box" trading firms that buy 100?s of longshot bets,  losing on most of them with the few winners paying spectacular returns. The crucial difference between the old boss and the new boss is that the old boss  the record labels saw that it was in their interest to invest in the creation of music.  Further they knew success in the music business was highly unpredictable.  Therefore they spread their investment around.  They didn't do this out of the kindness of their own hearts,  they did this cause it was a in their long term interest. And it was the surest way to make money.  So up until the early 2000?s  record companies essentially overpaid the 9 "losing" artists and underpaid the one "winning" or hit artist through their system of advances for each album.  It was a semi-socialist system.  A system in which the superstars revenue subsidized all those new and developing artists.  The destruction of this revenue and risk sharing system is another important reason why artists are poorer now. This is what people do not understand.  When they