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With that massive audience atomized into countless specialized niches, the old ways of doing business no longer work. Major record labels lose money on 90 percent of the records they release, which is fine when you have 10 million-selling blockbusters to pull you through. That was a common achievement at the height of the teen-pop era in the late 1990s. But 2005's top-selling record, Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi," sold only 5 million copies -- a sure sign that the record industry is in a jam.

Except for a modest gain in 2004, compact disc sales have dropped every year since 2000. Movie grosses, radio listenership and network viewership have also declined. The drop is especially pronounced among younger people, who spend more time with blogs such as Wonkette.com (billed as "Politics for People with Dirty Minds") or Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" than any network news show. Even syndicated deejay Howard Stern, a radio fixture for decades, has left earthbound radio to broadcast on the Sirius satellite radio network, taking millions of listeners with him.

This is bad news for mega-corporations with huge overheads. But if you're a consumer, you've been having too much fun scouring the Internet for Hindi movies or Asian hip-hop to worry about someone else's bottom line. Okayplayer.com, Guitartown.org and other online communities bypass traditional media, enabling like-minded people across the planet to network about everything from hip-hop poetry slams to alternative-country house concerts.

"Referring people to other bands used to happen from the stage," says ibiblio's Jones. " 'If you like us, our buddies will be in town in three weeks.' Now, that happens online with MySpace, a band's Web site, blogs, low-power FM radio. The Internet has made networking and gatekeeping conversational.

"The gatekeepers you trust the most are your peers, the people that speak to and for you wisely," he adds. "You can have fake gatekeepers, which is what payola gave us on the radio and that's why it got rejected. And you can have distant gatekeepers, who are not in conversation with you. A good gatekeeper is in conversation with both listeners and bands."

MySpace has become an especially important networking site for artists and fans. Stephen Levitin, a deejay and drummer better known as the Applejuice Kid, is one of many Triangle musicians with a page on MySpace (www.myspace.com/theapplejuicekid). It's an easy way to publicize area events, and it puts him in touch with lots of people from all over.

"About three years ago, I was playing drums on this gig and met a deejay from Philadelphia," Levitin says. "I gave her my CD, which she passed along to another person in Philadelphia. And two days ago, I heard from that other person on MySpace: 'Hey, I've been meaning to get in touch for years, I'm a big fan.' It's a pretty random connective thing, and it happens all the time on MySpace."

Sometimes, those random connective things online go beyond social interaction.

Three years ago, Little Brother vocalist Phonte Coleman met up with a Dutch producer named Nicolay on the hip-hop Web site Okayplayer. Online conversation led to collaboration, and an album made by sending tracks and verses back and forth over the Internet. Released under the name Foreign Exchange, 2004's "Connected" was released before Coleman and Nicolay met in real life.

DIY culture

A few weeks ago, an e-mail attachment announcing a two-hour weather delay at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill hit students' computer in-boxes. Paul Jones' 12-year-old son, Tucker, knew just what to do. He turned it into a dance track with guitars and a drumbeat behind the voice repeating, "two hours later than normal." Tucker also did the same thing with another recorded announcement featuring the voice of Smith principal Valerie Reinhardt.

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