One of the greatest things about the age of wireless Internet is the recent democratization of the world of music. It used to be that in order to discover new music, the average person had to listen to the radio or, eventually, watch music channels like MTV. This used to be a more enjoyable experience, as radio stations were individually owned and DJs were generally obsessed music fans who had a large degree of control over what new music to play. These days, however, the vast majority of radio stations are owned by multinational media conglomerates, and play lists are almost without fail predetermined in corporate offices and broadcast around the country without alteration. There are even some radio stations, such as the ubiquitous JACKFM, that have scrapped the DJ format all together, instead pre-programming play lists and broadcasting them across the country. And music television stations were Universalists from the get-go: there was never an amazing about of consumer or individual control over what got played on the video channels.

But despite the corporatization of the radio and other traditional sources of music, there has actually been a major shift online, where consumers can access new music with their wireless Internet connections in ways that give them, as well as the artists, more power over the process. For example, any individual user can log onto his or her 4G phone and do research in a flash on new bands to listen to. In addition to the online version of standard magazines like Spin or Rolling Stone, there are now countless music blogs where one can go to get recommendations for the newest albums. These blogs range from the well established, like Pitchfork or Stereogum, to the random personal blogs run by that nerdy guy who sits in the cubicle across from yours, to the girl who works at the local used record store. You can go online and read all about the newest bands, straight from the obsessive fans who stay up-to-date on these things.

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