Once we depended on an established system to discover and recommend the music we listen to. Music labels decided what music to record and print and radio stations decided what to play on the air. There were well-defined genres like “rock” or “R&B” with enough listeners to support mass-market advertising.

A Changing Music Marketplace
Because it no longer costs a small fortune to record an album (every artist has a laptop) artists decide themselves what to record and print. There are more artists and music available than ever before. There are no longer enough radio stations to play all the types and genres of music available. Most niches are too small to support a radio station.

The music marketplace is rapidly changing and it is no longer controlled by a few companies or influential people.

Who Recommends Music Now?
While there may be more good music being made today, it is more difficult to find because we rely less on traditional tastemakers to decide what we listen to. However, once you do some exploring, you’ll discover there are a lot of places to find recommendations for music:

Recommendation Web Sites
In the past few years several different types of music recommendation web sites have sprung up, usually recommending music based on what you are listening to now. For example, last.fm catalogs what you are playing and shows you other people around the world who have similar playlists. You can browse the music they are listening to for gems you may never have heard. Other sites encourage you to post your playlist and tag them with genre names so others can cross-reference them. Within minutes of visiting these sites you will have dozens of recommendations for good music by people who are like the same music you do.

Publications
Most newspapers and magazines have music critics who listen to lots of music and write about what they like. Because it is their full-time job they are still a great resource.

Public radio
Your public radio station is probably playing lots of great music you haven’t heard of yet. They aren’t tied to playing music that only appeals to a mass market and can indulge in lots of different genres and types of music that might not have a large enough audience to support a commercial radio station. Many of them post their playlists on their sites, so check those out too.

Independent music labels
Often these small labels are run by one or two people. They are more likely to sign and promote the music they personally like. Therefore, if you find an artist you like, check out other artists on that label.

Concerts
There is nothing quite like seeing a band perform live to really appreciate them. After all, music is a performance art. Because we have access to recordings in convenient formats many people never experience their favorite artists in a concert setting. Let me remind you how powerful a concert experience is. You will appreciate your favorite artists even more after seeing them live. An added bonus is that bands often tour with similar-sounding or complementary artists. Even if you can’t make it to a show, check out who your favorite artists are touring with. A great site to see who is touring where and when is on pollstar.com.

Amazon.com
Have you noticed how Amazon makes recommendations based on your past purchases there? This is called “affinity-based recommendations.” Basically, if a lot of other people who bought the same music you did and also bought something that you haven’t bought yet, Amazon can be fairly certain you will like what they bought too. The more information you give Amazon about the CDs you own and how much you like it, the better they are at recommending new music for you.

Discussion Groups
Every artist has a group of dedicated fans who often contribute to message boards, either on the artist web site or on Yahoo Groups or some other message board system. Invariably they recommend other music to listen to. If you have a favorite group check out the message boards dedicated to them.

Myspace
It seems every band has a myspace page these days. That is because myspace makes it easy for them to create a page and post three or four songs. You can get lost for hours on myspace just clicking on links to bands and listening to music.

TV Shows and Commercials
Nobody writes jingles anymore. Instead they license music from labels or artists to supply the background of their show or sales-pitch. This is a great way to discover new music.

MusicRex helps you find these new recommendation sites. Go to the front page of MusicRex and check out the links to various music sites there. If you know of a great music blog or music site that should be on our list, let us know!

We are in the midst of a revolution – a music revolution. No, it isn’t some new style like rock ‘n roll or disco or hip-hop that is sweeping the world. It is a major shift in how music is made, distributed and discovered.

Musicians have freedom
Musicians in all genres have found freedom from major labels and the mass-media distribution system we all grew up with. They can produce and record music in their basements without a marketing guru looking over their shoulder. They can self-produce their CD and sell it over the internet.

Mass media and big labels still account for the most successful songs and albums, but now there is an alternative. Before this revolution artists were stuck with the big label system. Many artists can now earn a modest living outside of the big label system, and many are finding they like the freedom it brings. The result is that more music is being produced than ever before. And because more musicians are able to make a living, some might argue more of them are becoming better at their craft.

Distribution has changed
The old system depended on marketing to the largest groups of people possible – through radio and television – and selling music in specialty stores. Now that there is an alternative this distribution system is beginning to crumble. Nearly all of the old record stores have closed and most physical sales are made through discounters such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

These retailers have a very limited inventory compared to the old Tower Records locations with 400,000 titles. Instead, people go to Amazon.com and other online retailers to search millions of titles – more than a physical record store could ever hope to carry.

This environment has bred hundreds of independent labels who are able to specialize in a genre or geographic location and nurture up-and-coming artists who might not normally have made it in the mass-media marketplace.

Also, small artists without any label support at all can still sell thousands of their records online through their own web sites, myspace pages or CD Baby.

It is easier than ever to distribute music, even if a lot of the profit has gone out of the distribution part of the business.

How to Discover New Music?
With all the changes in production and distribution, it has been difficult for most people to find good new music to listen to. In fact, this may be as big a part of declining music sales as other maladies such as illegal downloading that are more commonly mentioned.

Local radio is no longer the dominent tastemaker it once was. Can you name one radio DJ you trust to recommend music anymore?

Much of the music being made today doesn’t fit into the sharply-drawn genres that radio formats were designed for. Because artists have more freedom when making music without a big label trying to force them into a more defined genre, radio has become a wasteland when compared to previous decades. The most critically-acclaimed album of 2005, Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinoise,” hardly received any radio play.

Instead of mass-media dominating music tastemaking, it is a larger group of small tastemakers who are recommending what we listen to today: mp3 blogs, automated recommendation sites like last.fm and Pandora, social webs like the music-oriented myspace or facebook and thousands of bloggers and reviewers who are getting the word out any way they can.

These avenues of discovery are just now being adopted by the music-buying public. Today most people are clueless about how to find good music they will like and how to get plugged into a community that meshes with their musical tastes.

As these new discovery platforms gain wider acceptance the old production and distribution systems will change even more. There will always be a place for mass-marketing of music. We will still have anthems that touch large numbers of us at one time. It just won’t be the dominent force it once was.

So if you are confused about how to find good music today, begin checking out the new tastemakers. The mp3 blogs, recommendation sites and podcasts. They are home to thousands of music lovers who listen to and recommend artists and albums you have never heard on the radio. You might be surprised to find much of it is better than you could have hoped for.