I think a big problem is clearchannel. While the marginal costs are zero, the costs of marketing are not. The musical literati with their Pitchfork magazines and their music blogs and their custom-made Pandora lists and all that can dive into the deep end of indie music, but the laymen still just use the knob in the car, and the knob in the car is effectively controlled by the big record companies and they only offer it to musicians that they totally control.
This means that, while the indie market is growing and the communication for indie fans is better, the indie fanbase can't really effectively invade the mainstream until terrestrial radio dies its long-overdue death.
If you want to go out of your way to select your music streams, there's a lot for you. But for people who just want background music to some other task, the process of digging around and separating the wheat from the chaff is time they just don't want to allocate for 4-minute chunks of music.
This means that, while the indie market is growing and the communication for indie fans is better, the indie fanbase can't really effectively invade the mainstream until terrestrial radio dies its long-overdue death.
If you want to go out of your way to select your music streams, there's a lot for you. But for people who just want background music to some other task, the process of digging around and separating the wheat from the chaff is time they just don't want to allocate for 4-minute chunks of music.