Just thought to express my own personal opinion on things and get back to the point regarding the scene as a whole (vinyl vs cd is irrelevant compared to good vs bad music).

Ive been thinking this over the last few months and at the minute I think radio stations are the missing element. The clubs are there, the record shops are there, the labels are releasing enough stuff but the problem for me as a buyer is that Im too damn lazy to sift through the bad music to find the good tracks. Internet radio is giving me the chance to listen to lots of material while I do other things at home (ie not having to spend hours in a record shop digging crates) and most of them broadcast track info and web addresses for the tracks they play. Obviously the clubs are playing tracks but my idea of a good night out isnt leaning over the dj booth doing a bit of trainspotting.

When I look at successful scenes I think of the UK rave scene 88-92 and more recently London (DnB, Garage, Grime). Both these scenes had pirate radio stations to reach a wider audience. I really think theres no point in doing a techno/electro only pirate station as the listenership would be too small in any one area, so internet radio is the way to go (with ID3 info broadcast). Then listeners can buy directly from labels and we can wave bye bye to the distributors. PnD deals have flooded the market with sub-standard product and with the possibility of MP3 being the format in the choice in the near future, its actually going to get even more flooded. So for me, its the radio stations that will have to be the 'filter'.

Any opinions welcome...