It’s interesting that four - arguably five (Toby Keith) - of the top ten acts are “oldies” acts.
I look at that list and I say that’s a hell of a lot of money.
There’s a dropoff of course but even the Beatles didn’t make that kind of cash when they were a band.
It may be an unrealistic expectation. Certainly every festival concert isn’t Woodstock or Isle of Wight with 500,000+ people.
I also hear that tracked hit album sales are down. But there are so many more active musicians. And corporate chain performance venues that did not exist 30 years ago.
Used album sales never get tallied by the music business either. Between Amazon and ebay, you’ll find millions of used recordings for sale.
The industry is trying to add (free) streaming plays to the qualifiers for “top artist of the year” (making streaming plays more valuable than actual sales). When a listener parts with his or her money, it means something. Anything else is striving for bragging rights.