An interesting point Bleep, but I think its almost the opposite, there is a paradox effect that as bandwidth of entertainment-culture-art-leisure-distraction increases, the actual intensity of innovation decreases. There are many reasons for this, but one of them might be the disconnection between different aesthetic branches (or genres in music) created as a byproduct of the scale of the whole edifice, (niches) and also the fact that the previous model was to squeeze almost everything vaguely "populist" through a tiny media aperture, creating interesting tensions, which as the aperture widens to accommodate any taste or prediction is lost...
Quite, its the lack of tension in this broadband/niche/long-tail world that is precisely the problem. And its a problem that iterates upon itself. This 'something new' (and big) will always attempt a rupture with current forces, and will explicitly set its stall out against them. A lack of any dominant sound, and the mood that all is accepted and has its place, means that that there's nothing to oppose. Which means that something new (and big) is impossible. The mainstream will remain stuck (or at best, move at gek's glacial pace, or recycle on a 10/15/20 year loop, which people are mainly indifferent to anyway).
Of course, this doesn't mean interesting stuff won't happen in the fringes, in those niches, but they'll never get beyond that.
I'd like to think that there is some way out of this, that we can adapt to this broadband era. It may just be a question of coming to terms with it, and being happy with the crop from the niches. That does almost certainly mean that music has lost some of its relevance, and no doubt, excitement.
I'd like to think that the democratisation of music that is occuring, as more and more people have the means of production and distribution of music, would mean more musicians in the world discovering the joys of creation (rather than merely representation), and with it, greater innovation, and perhaps even an opposition to consumerism, as the excitement of music vastly outweighs hollow pleasures of conspicuous consumption. Unfortunately, 10 minutes on MySpace, and I'm thoroughly disabused.