Maybe a better way to phrase that is 'Should tech change the role of the music critic?'

When we can listen to 30-second sound clips -- or in some cases entire songs or even albums -- online before deciding whether we want to buy, what do we care what Music Critic X or Y says about it? We can think for ourselves... can't we?

Technology is undeniably altering the business of the music industry and the traditional media needs to consider whether that changes how it covers the industry.

I submit that the ease of access to music -- after all, even indie artists who have the slightest clue about the Web or friends who do can make their music available to the world -- should be shifting the responsibilities of the critic much more toward gatekeeping. More listening, less writing.

That is, we can listen to anything we want, but there is a LOT of music out there and most people don't know where to start beyond what's playing on their radios or sitting on the bestseller list.

Critics can still play a valuable role in helping people find new music -- the problem is that the vast majority of music reviews coming out of the mainstream media consist of critics rattling on about the music on the radio and on those bestseller lists.

That music is a known quantity. It is enough to simply remind us when new music from those artists is available -- or better yet, remind us and tell us if (and where) we can listen to it ahead of time. Maybe give us a one-sentence wrap on your opinion.

For instance, when the new Norah Jones album came out a couple weeks ago, I'm betting that there wasn't a major media outlet in the country that didn't run some type of review. I saw very, very few (other than ours of course;) which told readers they could listen to the album in its entirety on VH1.com a week before its release. And notice I ran it with a story about Norah rather than an actual review (although I think I did run that later just because it was running in print). Access to celebrities and insider info is another valuable role critics maintain. Better to spend time giving readers a glimpse into their favorite artists' lives than writing lengthy reviews.

But more importantly, I believe the aspect in which critics are really failing their readers in this new world is in opening their eyes ears to new music. Some of the best (and, to be fair, some of the worst) music I've found is in piles of unopened CDs sent to music writers who don't have the time to listen to them all because they're busy writing reviews of new albums from groups we've all heard of.

So how can they do this better?