We've all been talking for a long time about how the old media establishment of a few astronomically popular bands will crumble and give way to a plethora of smaller acts. That's all well and good, and you can see evidence of it in the declining record sales and the rise of music blogs like discodust.blogspot.com and discoworkout.com. The trend is more and more people are spending more time listening to music and searching for talented artists and sharing them with their friends.
However, my experience is that I discover an artist I like, and I'm unable to purchase their music through the large channels I'm familiar with. Let's take Kill the Noise, for example, who is a DJ somewhere in California who happens to have made a remix I like. I go to his site, and it's all about booking information for getting him to come and perform for you. He has several of his tracks in a Flash music player at the top of the page. I'm listening to it as I write this post, and it's good. There are even links to a handful of downloads, some for free and others for pay. But I can't find a single link to an album for purchase.
It makes sense: the album isn't a format that fits the model of new media. Why should an artist release 8 or so tracks all at once in a seemingly arbitrary collection? Why not publish as soon as each track is finished to keep the buzz alive, rather than waiting two years for new music? However, here I am with my wallet, trying to figure out how to purchase roughly $10 worth of music without spending too much time looking for it. I guess there's no place for this in the new media regime. In order to find all the new hip stuff, you've got to have boatloads of time to comb the music blogs and download hit singles.
