Oh, and one more thing

Matthew's current indie-net hype jawn is a well-articulated distillation of what I was trying to say here, (and much better here) in many fewer words, and with much more Archers of Loaf. He says "reputation economy," I say "prestige economy," but I think the sentiment remains: the current state of indie music fandom is one that mirrors, at great depth, the prevailing wisdom of the corporate world. Branding, consistent turnover to new product, a focus on promotion of self as much as the artists. The semi-known BitTorrent community OiNK, with its technological elitism and country-club/Fight Club rule-driven/social-climbing acquisitive mentality formation is another example, surely. My creaky, cranky academic posturing/borderline gatekeeping sure sounds a lot better coming from Eric Bachmann, though.

UPDATE: After wading through Ryan Catbird's Idolator take on the CMJ panel on blogs, the industry-led conversation seems about as deep (talk to the Myspacers!) as Ryan's own uncritical, fawning interviews with the movers and shakers of the mp3-o-sphere themselves.