James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem is ambivalent about lifestyle marketing's impact on the future of music. Witty guy, check out a playlist of his electro-funk-punk jams here. A proponent of analog, he scoffs at the notion that digital music technology has enabled musicians to make better music. Of course, 'better' is subjective.
Murphy ponders whether 'taste engines' will have the same influence as local DJ's and record store clerks but concludes that exposure to music either way isn't all that dissimilar.
"People can be lead to different music by these, kind of like, taste engines but the taste engine isn't a qualitative judgment it's sort of theme judgment." Think about recommendations that you've gotten when you've bought music. Your choice tends to get lumped into a category that you might never have thought it belonged. But sometime it works and you find some great music. BP