In High School, if I wanted to buy an album, I had to order it out of a catalog and hope it was good, based purely on what the cover looked like. Assuming the cover was in the catalog at the music store. Now? Now it's easier to refine your tastes down to the nine other people on the planet who listen to and play music like you do.
I remember this well. For years my brother had a collections agency hounding him for the 10 CDs he bought out of a catalog for $5 up front and the promise of more purchases that he never made. I remember going to record shops and you could ask to hear certain music if they had an open copy. I would sit there for hours sometimes, with a pile of CDs in front of me whittling it down to one, maybe two that I'd buy. The amount of music easily available now is mind-blowing and awesome. From an accessibility standpoint, it's a great time to be a lover of music.