If a performer changes to using a nickname, say from Robert Johnson to Bobby Johnson, should they be listed separately?
If a band keeps the same personnel, music, etc. and changes only its name? What if they change one person, and the name change is for intellectual property reasons (e.g., the departed person owns rights to the original name)? What if they also were an acoustic folk band and plug in, switching to rock? To jazz? What if everything changes - personnel, music, etc. - except for the name? What if they retroactively rename the band or music for intellectual property reasons?
... as with every attempt to specify reality.
[0] https://compote.slate.com/images/39fd61d7-da5c-4975-aad4-84e... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Experience
The B-52's have been both "B-52's," and "The B-52's."
Prince made his name change as an artistic protest in the years before search engines. Apple is trying to encourage discoverability. Different incentives in different times. People are messy.
Famously he did become, in public media, yes. To his frustration, as he kept telling everyone to stop calling him "artist formerly known..." until he gave up and went back to Prince.
Though in public media's defense, it's very hard to reference someone who literally had no name for a period of time.
There's also artists that have many names that they perform under. The eurobeat scene is one that brings to mind immediately, since Giancarlo Pasquini aka Dave Rodgers also performs under the names "Derek Simon", "Robert Stone", "Patrick Hoolley", "Mario Ross", "Red Skins", "RCS", "Aleph", "The Big Brother" and "Thomas & Schubert".
(The ARTISTSORT field exists, but old devices, e.g. original iPods, don't know about it, so digital distributors tend to eschew the use of it, instead using the regular artist field as the ARTISTSORT field.)
Spotify has two entries, one for "Mos Def" and one for "Yasiin Bey" even though they are the same person.
However, some artists change names. Famously Prince, became "The artist formerly known as Prince" and then Prince again, but appears to only exist on iTunes/Apple Music as Prince.
Meanwhile, Japanese artist Yumi Arai, changed her name to Yumi Matsutoya in 1976 after getting married and exists as two separate artists under former name and current name.