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If the sudden bevy of telltale white headphones snaking into jacket pockets hasn't been enough indication, the media have been singing it loud and clear: digital music players have arrived. No longer the novelties of the techie caste, MP3 players and their ilk have taken a seat alongside digital cameras and cellphones as must-haves for everyday living among people of all stripes. This democratization, once it's followed by prices coming down and compatibility issues going away, will make the long-coming reconfiguration of the music business complete.

Curiously, what this could likely mean for the music business is not a new future, but rather a repeat of the past. With digital music increasingly the first, last, and only way in which consumers experience music, what's most crucial is not the muscle of the album or the magnetism of the artist, but instead the catchy, fleeting chimera of the single. Once a surefire method of maximizing profit from this format develops, music business has no excuse not to begin to resemble Tin Pan Alley again -- making the single the goal of a recording contract, pulling together a host of artists to tour American Idol style crooning their singles, to release albums only after several singles have proven their worth. And of the single might mean the disappearance -- or at least fundamental alteration -- of music criticism itself.

Sure, the mighty single is something with which music critics have had to contend before. In many genres of music, it's practically a certainty that most albums are little more than a compilation of singles peppered amongst relatively useless filler. Still, though digital music may simply be the exclamation point on the end of paragraph long being co-written by technology and capitalism, music journalists, unsurprisingly, have been behind on their reading. Albums have long been losing their relevance, yet music criticism remains a genre which depends on the album as its lifeblood (preferably on vinyl, thank you very much). Indeed, the very criteria for judging a record or an artist's merit -- at least subconsciously, if not vociferously articulated -- is how well an album measured up to whatever critics' desert island favorite may be. Whether stated or not, music journalism is loaded with comparisons to past greats -- Justin Timberlake's Justified vs. Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights vs. Joy Division's oeuvre. These references are useful musical shorthand, but they are also somewhat leery inferences which venerate most of all that which stands the test of time.

But when 10,000 songs are available in your pocket, why choose one album at all? Or, when the vitality of music rests in its momentum -- moving so fast these days as to even have lost its very physicality -- what happens to a profession which largely rests on longevity and staying power? This problem is compounded insofar as, from a listener's perspective, MP3s do a better job of music criticism than music critics do. Why read about an album's significance when you can simply download a couple of songs and decide for yourself? Why not pop those tunes into your iPod and walk around, see if they stick, and if not, erase 'em, never to think about it again?

This is a crossroads, indeed, but not necessarily a crisis. Instead, as this cultural shift solidifies, music journalists have the opportunity to reassess and redefine what music journalism is for, what its strengths are, and why it matters. One of those ways is in its power of publicity. And by publicity, I don't mean Beyonce on fifteen magazine covers in a month. With corporate radio constricting playlists everywhere, music journalism becomes the means by which little known artists can get their moment in the spotlight. Scavenging for the best of what's out there demands a dedication to adventure that far too many music critics seem to have lost -- but it's our duty to do this if our field hopes to maintain any kind of relevance.

Secondly, music journalists need to reacquaint themselves with and lose their kneejerk skepticism of the single. Finding a way to talk about songs -- in a way that mirrors the speed by which consumers are now experiencing them -- is a trying task, but not an insurmountable one. The appearance of song reviews -- once again, not necessarily a Top 40 run down, but a celebration of urgent music wherever it may be found (or, conversely, where it shouldn't be sought out) -- can be an invaluable service to listeners who crave thrilling music, but may not know where to look.