DRM is a haphazard attempt to violate fundamental laws of economics - if a good can be copied and distributed at zero marginal cost[0], it's futile trying to prevent that by fiat.
Independent artists and musicians have always been "screwed" if they want to make a living selling their art itself, as opposed to performances of it (for musicians) or the service of creating it (ie, photoshoots, wedding photographs).
We can look at the business models that Shakespeare and Marlowe operated under, or even Bach and Beethoven - by and large, artists in this era were paid by patrons who essentially commissioned works. And this was still in an era in which copying the plays or sheet music still came at a significant marginal cost (whereas copying digital works has no cost).