In an uncharacteristically straightforward posting, Idolator ponders an article in The Phoenix Times on the effect of the ever-increasing capacity of mp3 players and emergence of unlimited music services on the listening habits of audiences. While one would think that greater storage capability and millions of songs to choose from would lead to more experimentation, the opposite is often true. When a listener has literally thousands of songs at his or her fingertips, it’s much easier to flip past something that doesn’t immediately catch one’s tastes. Even though our players and hard drives may be stocked with interesting world music and the entire Tom Waits catalog, we end up listening to “Toxic” over and over again because it’s familiar and we know we like it. According to Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, increased choice leads to both a narrowing of music taste and increased passivity in the listening experience. The iPod is always playing but we might be fossilized into listening to the same heavy rotation of songs. Not only does this make me want to check my personal playlist, the idea begs the question of how new bands can hope to break when everybody is still listening to their old Radiohead albums. Signing on for an iTunes commercial might not be such a bad idea after all. [Idolator]