“ I hope that the music industry recognizes that word of mouth is a far more powerful, much cheaper and longer-lasting force than short-term saturation when it comes to selling records. I will buy a disc based on a positive recommendation from a friend five times out of 10, eight if I hear a track I like. Ads on TV, radio, magazines, billboards do little more than raise a Q rating; they sure don’t motivate me to buy. However, in the past two months I’ve spent over $100 on music that I wouldn’t have bought without it being first exposed by a music blog.