by Sherri Feldman

Created on: April 29, 2008   Last Updated: June 30, 2008

This is a very exciting time in music. When, not too long ago at all, consumers had to physically go to a record or CD store to purchase a new album (not before its official release date), we can now purchase, listen to, share, review, and even remix new music faster than it takes to burn a CD. Thanks to the internet, which continues to develop by the minute, the relationship between the musician or composer and the audience has capababilities which far surpass our wildest imaginations - or at least what our imaginations used to be.

Nine Inch Nails's "With Teeth," the first full-length album to be streamed prior to its release date via myspace.com, helped to pioneer a new standard in newly released music: we, the audience, want something NOW, and we can get it. Trent Reznor then made the source files for one track, "The Hand That Feeds," available in Garage Band format, and invited fans to have fun remixing. Radiohead, after ditching their record label and making their album available exclusively as a name-your-own-price digital download, has recently done the same with a remix contest for "Nude" (http://www.radioheadremix.com/). It's infinitely better than dreaming of your favorite frontman's autograph; it's a direct relationship between a band and their fans, and it's a beautiful thing.

Nicolay and Kay, the hip hop duo that met online on okayplayer.com, recently produced and released "Time:Line" together over the internet. Since it first streamed on myspace.com, listeners would never guess such an album could be made without the two ever even sitting together in the same studio. Hype Machine (and the thousands of music blogs it lists) is a prime example of this possibility. Anyone with a computer can have a personal relationship with any music by blogging about it, sharing it, and even making it their own by remixing it. A good remix, too, is a way of honoring a song, and musicians and DJs certainly don't seem to mind; on the contrary, it's hard to see any live show without a band covering another band's song or a DJ spinning their friends' or idols' hottest tracks.

One might argue that the internet allows a sort of cold distance between the listener and producer, audience and musician, that never could have existed back in the days when getting home and putting a newly purchased and unwrapped album into your player was an exciting tradition. And there is something to be said for those days, of course. But now, I think the producers of music understand something about their audience, about the music industry, and especially about the world we live in: it's moving fast. You want an audience, you have to, and now can, make one for yourself. Millions of myspace music profiles exist for musicians and bands with no labels - just people playing music they want us all to hear. And blog about it. And share with our friends. Now, it can all happen in record - no, in internet - time.

Thanks to the internet, musicians have bigger audiences than local garage bands in the 90's could have ever thought possible. Audiences have knowledge about and access to more music than we can even keep up with. DJs can stream or post live mixes for download and have new dancing fans across the globe instantly. Bands can seek out an audience via social networking sites and can share direct, personal messages with their fans. Perhaps the most amazing thing the internet makes possible between musicians and their audiences is the idea, the reassurement, that musicians need and appreciate an audience as much as we need and appreciate them. We don't have to wonder anymore if our favorite band saw us dancing at their last show - we can ask, and they can answer.

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