But when people have the option to get it for free or pay for it, many will still choose free. As we know on here quite well, album sales don't always correlate positively with album quality.
Put more effort in to albums. Look at how South Korea reinvigorated their album sales thanks to smart packaging and weekly music competitions that pit fanbases against each other.
Maybe something like ''rent an album'' would help? I mean, you rent an album and listend to it for like 5-6$ . If you like it you buy it if not then bye. At the end the label will get the money from the rent. I know this kind of thinking has many flaws but Im still working on it