They certainly weren't concentrating on the music.
Maybe we just wanted to focus all of our energy on producing that one big hit, like every shitty album recorded in the 90s. The goal here was not to fill pawn shops and thrift stores with scratched up, substandard pop music, it was to be the Lady Gaga of our time. Unfortunately, that slot has already been filled and abandoned by Madonna, with Nikki Minaj masturbating in the wings, just waiting to pounce.
Downloading didn't kill music, cannibalistic corporations worrying about their golden parachutes did. We set ourselves on a treadmill, and we didn’t think to change our name.