Ann: March Quarterly Investor Webinar, page-17

Nah, not an illusion. I'd call it a win-win.
If these industry players don't need the data, why would they negotiate? This would be a loss to Jaxtsa if fees > (is greater than) revenue earned from these players (if they were to subscribe like everyone else). I believe there's a variable fees component so that the fees go up as Jaxsta earns more. We don't have the full picture but what has that got to do with demand from other businesses or consumers???
Demand isn't exceptionally strong I agree, but it's there.
The "LinkedIn" of music was the previous CEO/Co-founder's vision, but that failed. Since Jaxsta's the only trusted DB out there and B2B demand was much stronger, it made sense to paywall it. That's what's happened under the new CEO and we are starting to see revenue growth.

E-commerce was always strategic; vinyl.com isn't exactly a 'pivot'