Who Needs MP3 Reviews And Internet Charts?
 
It depends completely on who is interested in it and which goals are pursued
thereby.
Fundamentally three target groups can be differentiated:
1) Listeners
2) Musicians
3) Music industry (in this posting only briefly responded, because most
Internet musicians have nothing or less to do with managers of the music
industry).

1. Listeners
Listeners want music, which is enjoyable, and has a high value of
entertainment. They would like to receive this as easily as possible, and
better still, free of charge. However, their tastes are very different and
this is reflected in different music directions/categories.
Thus it's obvious that listeners on a music web site would like to find the
desirable genre, and also the best musicians. No matter how a rank list of
songs is built up, it shouldn't have a negative impact on the listeners'
selection of songs, uncritical listeners are affected by these rank lists
which transpires into an unintentional prejudice:

"Who stands highly positioned in the rank list, has fans and cannot be bad,
and an unknown musician is therefore unknown, because his music is not
good."

The critical listener judges only by his pronounced taste, no matter whether
it is a well-known or unknown musician. There are much less critical
listeners than there are uncritical listeners. Sales figures of hits testify
this, which are pushed by the music industry. For most listeners of the
Internet a list of music categories and the associated charts are a
necessary guideline assistance. And the fans of a certain artist naturally
want their idol to be highly ranked in the chart. They provide then also for
the so-called "plays & downloads".

2. Musicians
The major goal of musicians is probably to inspire listeners as much as
possible, in order to attain public acknowledgment. Financial success is
mostly not of primary interest, considering the large number of the hobby
musicians in the InterNet. The professionals of course have fame & wealth as
their goal. For the musician it is important never to lose track of the
target groups. One should find out as early as possible at the beginning of
the
musical career, which type, which group of listeners / age group are
interested in the musician's presented genre, and what are the listeners'
expectations.

Who meets the taste of a target group exactly, can count on being in demand
and a certain success. Such a demand becomes visible in genuine and
continuous plays & downloads. The higher the demand within a short time is,
the more probable it is to land a hit within a category. Therefore plays &
download numbers and chart positions of the songs of a musician are like a
barometer of success. Without these evaluations, the largely unknown, or
hobby musician cannot determine, whether his or her music has been accepted
or appreciated, unless they receive direct feedback during public
performances / gigs.

3. Music industry
It is the principal purpose of the music industry to deliver large
quantities of easily produced music for consumption by the mass market, or
still better to stimulate the mass by appropriating marketing strategies and
sales promotion campaigns. Public charts are utilized to bring their
preferences to the front of public awareness. The uncritical mass of
listeners expresses its sympathy here also for "highest ranked" music, or in
other words results in a greater inclination to buy.

Conclusion
It can be assumed that the Internet and hobby musician would be rather
disorientated without any feedback from listeners of uploaded tracks.
Musicians need every kind of feedback like scaled evaluations, reviews,
numbers of plays & downloads for each song in which time, in order to
recognize the target group and to improve the musical approach
accordingly.

Volker Zdunnek a.k.a. Philos60