With so few consumers now buying music on physical media and with the vast majority of them just streaming music online, what purpose do the big record labels serve as far as new and upcoming artists go? Any new artist can just simply promote/advertise themselves online and they can sell their music online as well in either download or streaming format. That way, the artist gets 100% of all sales instead of some record label getting a huge cut.

Makes sense no?

I'm so out of touch that I don't know how any of this works anymore (plus I don't stream). As with record labels, what are local radio stations good for anymore?

I have this on the way (for less $) which accepts not only flash drives, but the little micro SD cards that I'm using with our new MP3 players...
Portable Bluetooth Speakers, 30W Loud Outdoor Speakers with Subwoofer, FM Radio...

I'll be taking it on upcoming secluded bed-and-breakfast road trips to have music in the room (respectfully keeping it low, of course). I keep a tiny SD card in my wallet with more music/specific playlists that I could ever want to listen to. All I need now is an SD card reader for my car, replacing the 13 year old stock system that still otherwise works fine. Our current '08 Element EX is the first car that I didn't go aftermarket with head unit, speakers and amps (and sounds much better than my parent's newer RAV4), but eventually something has to break. Crutchfield to the rescue.

Anyway, today's tech is great!

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Which goes back to the question of what is dead today...Rock? Radio? Record labels?

Really, I honestly don't care. I've accepted that Pearl Jam's Ten (1991) was likely the last time I'll ever be totally wowed by a new album, followed by the Cranberries' Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We (1993) and RHCP's Californication (1999) for different types of Rock.

As long as my local-venue Rock shows return post-virus (indoor and outdoor) because that's what I'm missing right now. Standing in front of a Marshall stack holding your sweetie is and always will be the ultimate date night experience.

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With so many people streaming or downloading music for free (or so I've read), I would think that arena concerts (which I'm done with) would be even that much more important today for new popular artists to make money with their teenage fanbase. But with Coronavirus...

This is of course anecdotal but the great majority of people who I know personally stream their music for free either from Youtube, Pandora or Spotify. I'll have to dig up the article I read a few months ago but it mentioned that streaming now accounts for over 70% of the consumer music market.