The crowd matters. Just the former post reported about a new breed of crowd funding to finance concerts. This is followed by crowd sourcing to get reviews for music pieces.
The both services Audiokite and SoundOut are providing services to get ratings of songs and music tracks. The music pieces are introduced to a larger audience to give feedback to musicians. The background are real market research methods, which lead to valid reports. Even radio shows are used to get the feedback. Both services have a comprehensive service offer, which is described at the homepages of Audiokite and SoundOut.
TRAEXS Directory Links: Music Business – Music Promotion