• Fortune, Thursday, January 19, 2006 12 PM

While many media gatekeepers like commercial radio stations are losing out to more select, consumer-generated sources like iTunes playlists, "there is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping role that the best of the media gatekeepers can play," writes Justin Fox in a thoughtful essay in Fortune. "The question is, who's going to play it? And how are they going to make it work economically?" Fox contends that getting music or other media recommendations merely from other consumers has its drawbacks: "The main one is that it can hard to break out of whatever subculture--of music or any other kind of media--you've decided to join."

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