"Independent musicians are augmenting traditional promotional methods such as touring, word of mouth, fan clubs and posters with Web sites, e-mail lists and blogs. Listener recommendations, online preview clips and samples, shared playlists and other grassroots Web tools are also changing the music landscape.

Bottom line: The trend could one day reduce the percentage of music sales currently controlled by a handful of heavily promoted acts and boost recognition for a greater number of less-popular artists."

See what I wrote about this over a year and half ago: Bat N'Avò Goes To Hollywood.

If you are an independent musician and still dreaming to make the shelves of every city music store, wake up.

Time to catch the wave: you can finally be a real artist, while making a buck at it; but yes, wake up, this time is all about sharing, promoting, and letting others play with your music.

If you are ready for this and have a real good social cause to marry your music with, then you got the groove.