I run a small record label, one that I'd like to think acknowledges all the realities of trying to make and sell music in the post-Napster age.<p>My problem with something like this is, I suppose, my problem with Talent Shows, or "Vote For Your Favorite Artist!" contests on MTV, or American Idol: the wisdom of the crowds when applied to aesthetics produces inane garbage.<p>The purpose of art is to expand the human experience. Good bands shock and surprise you, give you new sensations in new ways. The best musicians produce intensely personal expressions of their own emotional reality, to which people with similar internal clockwork respond.<p>Bring everyone together to see which music they can agree on, and what they will end up picking is the average of all their emotional experiences, the music which relates only the most accessible and universal of concerns. Sorry, but even impeccably-crafted boring music is still boring.<p>To bring this down to Earth a bit: the future of music is disintegration, not centralization. It makes no sense for me to compete for eyeballs in a crowded marketplace when I can set up my own download site overnight and start getting in touch with blogs that directly address people who like the music I play.<p>Music will continue to niche down and atomize until there are taste-makers, distribution channels, and a healthy community of artists for every possible genre and sub-genre. My "conversion rate," so to speak, will be much higher on sites like these than it would be in giant competitive marketplaces like the one linked above.