A comment we sometimes hear at MusicStrands from the uninitiated, is “but that mega-eRetailer already tells me people who ordered this also ordered…”. Our company anger management consultant has taught us to count 1,2,…,10, and then reply in measured tones that even though it is now common knowledge throughout the industry that we have all but eclipsed those guys as the must visit first site for all things music in the minds of discerning financial advisors and music listeners alike, we strive to provide our devotees far more useful advice: “People who listened to and liked music you like, suggest that you might also like this music”. And although we at the MusicStrands certainly hope you will click through to buy the music from one of the many fine retailer choices we provide to you so that we can fund our carefully designed “growth” plan, we get our strokes from connecting you with something that you’ll like and may have never heard otherwise.

Which gets to the real point of this post: Outlining our plan for dominating the known universe and dictating what music you will like and buy. Well, maybe not all of it, but we are sure you bow down to the majesty of our vision.

Seriously though, before the online world, music discovery pretty much was something done to most of us. In this undated interview, Island Records A&R VP John Carter describes how record companies and broadcast radio introduced us to new artists and the high cost of that music discovery model. Which goes a long way to explaining the opportunity for us in connecting you with the vast number of artists and their music that you probably wouldn’t have found in those bad ol’ days.

If you’re fortunate enough to know someone who makes music and wants to share it with the world, you probably also have learned how record companies used to develop musicians by promoting radio airplay and distributing their music, but pretty much have gotten out of that business. Filling that void and contributing what we can to the development of many more artists than would ever have been possible before is our vision statement. What’s more, while A&R execs apparently are a little stand-offish when it comes to hard-working artists just trying to get heard, we are just average working people who really want to help artists connect with their audience. (In the near future, we’ll be rolling out some new features on this front, but we can’t talk about that yet.)

As we see it, destiny lies in helping fans and artists together play the numbers game. This is the so-called “long tails” view that there is an audience out there for a large and diverse range of artists. We have the technology, we have the capability … a better … stronger … faster… (we don’t get out nearly enough) … way to bring them together than that mega-eRetailer.

Finally, this from the Knitters Exene Cervenka committing about their new The Modern Sounds of The Knitters CD, the first release in 20 years from the ex-X/ex-Blasters side project: “Folk is slow punk”.