Are you sure about this? I have subscribed to a number of small artists specifically to follow edits and changes. That seems to work fine. There is a subscribe link on the right hand side of each artist that allows this to happen.
When you add an artist to MB you get automatically subscribed to them. Which can be a bit comical when adding in instruments.
Note: I see “subscribed” to mean appearing in my “My Data” \ “Edits for subscribed entries” menu. It is this list I check over (mostly) daily. I don’t check MB emails at all. Just the website.