Music populism

Flash! Josh Claybourn at ITA points to a new blog, Carry On Country. I'm not a big country music fan (although they have the best song titles in history...consider You're the Reason Our Baby is Ugly) but that genre knows more about selling music than anybody. I have watched for years as the music industry has marketed music just as publishing has marketed creative writing, both fiction and non-fiction.
There is a difference between quality and fluff. I think most consumers know that, but put up with paying for fluff because they think that's the only choice they have. Not true anymore, thanks to the internet.

The Blogosphere will provide a staging ground for consumer musical populism. Listeners will no longer hear only songs the Major Record Labels want them to hear. Consumers will not be limited in their access to information. Listeners will now be able to hear about new music from groups of like-minded consumers via musi-blogs. Musi-blogs will create a larger market for new and non-mainstream artists, who will need no longer have a major contract deal to enter the game.
Thanks to online music brokers (iTunes, Walmart), consumers no longer have to buy an entire album just to have a favorite song. This product purchase change will have an enormous impact on the music market. Consumers will be more likely to purchase songs from unknown and new artists. Buyers will also become more demanding, not allowing major artists to create albums full of filler songs.
It would be wise for Music Row to have a healthy dose of Blogos-fear.