Not all artists can do shows - e.g. disabled, but I believe true fans will buy a record. I wouldn't like someone like RIAA to pressure someone into paying just because they downloaded my song to check it out (and I wouldn't see the money anyway). These days we have great technology and companies like Spotify can pay artists directly. Labels these days can only provide financing (on mafia like terms) and influence gate keepers, but this is also changing. You can totally make a commercial grade record on your own without label involvement, same with videos, merch etc. and even gigs.