I mean... they did (basically) give access to their entire catalog to radio stations for even less than that.. but I almost sound like a troll mentioning it.

Streaming was forced into existence by the invention of digital media. The ~20 years between the point where could stream and the point where we did stream seems in retrospect to be an artifact of having an entrenched industry clinging desperately to the concept of music as a physical product.

Every good stereo from the 80s and 90s had two tape-decks, one of which could record from any other signal source on the stereo. It wasn't so you could play two tapes over the speakers...

Piracy existed a LONG time before Napster hit the scene.

The major record labels were forced by compulsory license to allow MusicMatch to stream music about 2 years later.