Part of the vision of the brave new music industry is a belief in the power of social networks and communities to spread the word and hype new music, as opposed to the traditional channels favoured by the music industry of old (such as radio and TV). These new channels are far more open and inclusive mediums, available to all artists who put the relevant time into networking with similar minded users, and generally don´t cost a penny. An interesting contrast is that whereas the traditional channels rely on key opinion formers at the top spreading the word and guiding opinion, online channels are often driven from the bottom up by the collective wisdom of people who are part of them. Commercial Radio may pride itself on keeping its ear to the ground and feeling the pulse of the present musical zeitgeist, but this doesn’t really compare to the dynamic opinion forming of dedicated music fans on social networks. Besides, on many radio stations one actually has to pay to get airplay – this is not the case on the internet, even with influential music bloggers and podcasts.

The internet is designed for exploring, and there are many great environments for exploring new music which are available to all artists, not just those with a large marketing budget and a major label behind them. Services like Last.Fm, iLike, MySpace, Imeem, Twitter, You Tube (and many more) provide an invaluable resource to all artists serious about developing a solid fan base, both local and global. Beyond this, there are also a huge number of networks and services driven by music lovers on a local level, organising and promoting concerts and blogging to the world about their local music scene for the sheer joy of it. What is also exciting is that the new generation of listeners will be completely adept at navigating this new autonomous user generated environment, so it looks like the potential of the online music environment is just coming to fruition. The same is new for the new generation of musicians.