Unfortunately, this article is accurate

I have another take on the current condition of the hobby.  I am old (77), grew up in the 60s and was fortunate to have lived through an amazing time for music.  I began with a cheap, what I call a grind-o-matic record player when I was in high school (graduated 60 yesrs ago).  My affair with music began with the Ventures aurf music, but quickly moved on to the Stones, Animals and the British Invasion.  Music was a connective part of my life with my friends.

After getting my invitation from the government to enter the military, I began a journey that put me in a place where music kept me sane while I was in the Army.  I had enough $$ to buy my first decent audio set up with an amplifier, tuner, reel to reel, turntable and decent speakers.  It would be called mi-fi today, but it was heaven to me and my friends when I returned to the states

Music was available to the masses as concerts were affordable and an amazing collection of skilled artists were in their prime. I went to see The Allman Brothers Band on 2 hours notice and the ticket was cheap.  1971 and Duane was still leasing the band.

I say all this as background to my hypothesis that aside from Swifties, no group of fans is waiting with bated breath for the next release of a large number of bands to see what new magic is being made.  That, plus the cost of concerts is on the moon is keeping the young away from live music.  
 

while a rock fan, I had season tickets to the symphony, went to jazz and blues clubs for a 2 drink minimum.  I remember seeing the Newport Jazz All Stars with Milt Hampton on vibes, Harry Belefonte was in the house that night.  My wifes margarita at a mexican restaurant was as much as her dinner last week.

I enjoy the music at home on a decent system, replacing it would be the cost of a new car, but the music to me is no better psychologically than my first quality set of separates.  I can tell the difference most certainly, but the joy is no different.

Onw way to observe this effect is to watch some reaction videos on youtube.  To summarize this long winded rant, it is cost, access and quality that has diminished the attachment to music compared to my youth. 

Related to this post I want to mention 2 things.

1. When I first heard, "I Want To Hold Your Hand, by The Beatles, it was on my grandmother's cheap pink plastic radio. The way I felt from that experience had absolutely nothing to do with the fidelity of it.

2. There's a guy now selling $600 fuses to audiophiles. 

Just one item I would like to point out amongst many things that make up the outrageous cost of living today is real estate itself. Younger people are being forced to share Apartments with roommates. This makes it really difficult to unfurl your taste in music on a conventional stereo with speakers. Also the trend of saddling apartment dwellers with the equity for the building also known as a co-op conversion which sprouts hundreds of opinionated owners supporting their own mortgage that is slowly drowning them along with ever-increasing maintenance who get truly surly about somebody enjoying their stereo. So it's not really that people have fallen out of love with their stereos it's more like after they lose two or three apartments and they've got to give up the stereo or set it up in the street. There are a number of factors that compound this the most glaring being that sound isolation is never considered during the massively expensive but infinitesimal in reality Capital improvements which are booked for that Co-op conversion. So they won't be adding any stagger stud party walls and when they put the new laminated floor down you'll find that it actually makes footfalls louder instead of putting some type of isolation on the floors.

1. "But I'm not dead yet." There has never been more choice and more variety in equipment, topology, brands, media, price points or any other aspect of this hobby than right now. Not even close.

2. "But I'm still using it." We seem to use what we like and know and judge the health of the hobby on how much interest there seems to be in those things acquired the way we acquired them. Brick and mortar, vinyl, "albums", collections, big iron, slow upgrading. There are many more entry points to audio now than ever before existed. The paths through the hobby are nothing like the past. Maybe the avid listener comes the way of hearing a title on the web, listens on earbuds, hears it again on a friend's retro-modded 1963 tube Magnavox console pulled off a curb somewhere and then shops the web, hits a few dozen of the 2-channel fan sites and decides to take the plunge on some inexpensive gear made in China off of Amazon. It all starts somewhere. Those "somewheres" have never been as numerous, as creative or as diverse as now. Audiophilia isn't dead because there is little interest in gramps' gear bought at a dedicated audio shop selling heavily marked-up heavy stuff.

3. I bought my first gear when I was in college. It was the best I could afford at the time and movable enough to keep intact for at least 10 years. A 25W Technics receiver, a Technics belt-drive turntable, a couple of Bose bookshelf speakers. Somewhere along the way I got an entry-level Nak cassette deck (no Dragons for me, tant pis.) Today, for the same 1978 dollars, I could get a vastly better listening experience that wouldn't look anything like what I bought those decades ago. Sure, housing in desirable places has become ridiculous, and people will adjust their ways of living and what they buy and when. How they spend what they have for their hobbies will change also, but it isn't going away.