Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive comment. Appreciate it. π
I think the important point you touch on here is to offer something special for listeners. I have been doing that for a while - I do hand-made limited edition CDs of the EPs I release, and will continue to do that. You can see the sort of thing I do here --> https://gribbles.bandcamp.com/merch
I also dabbled in setting up a store that allowed folk to buy stuff using crypto though @hivepay-io. It worked (folk could buy my stuff for Hive - pretty cool!), but I need to build a better store and all that - it's just my proof of concept thing at the moment.
I'm not a huge fan of NTFs. I see their use in things like the hive games I play like Rising Star, but the whole 'value through scarcity' thing just crosses over into snake-oil for me. I understand that as a tool, a mechanism, they may be useful in certain types if licensing in music - but the whole "I've just created a jpg, and I'm only going to mint 5 on the blockchain, so they're worth $100 each" does not sit well with me. π€·ββ
So I think the answer is a mix of what you say, and some other stuff as well - but the key point for me is bringing all together with a focussed approach. Up to now I've just sort of done stuff as & when with little thought to a longer term (maybe more effective) plan. That's what I've started to think about, really. I'll post more on that as I get it together π