I used to wonder what it would have felt like to be a horse wrangler in 1893 in Massachusetts as the first American petrol-powered car drove past. You’d have had a sinking sense that things were not going to be the same, that a revolution was taking place, that horses were on the way out. I didn’t have to wonder for too long, because it turns out we are living in our own digital revolution right now, which is affecting the way we listen to and think about music.

The first major change is the democratising of music. Because recording was a big, expensive operation requiring studios and massive 24-channel desks, corporations were in charge of access to who got recorded, and at the other end, radio only played the people who had been allowed through the gateway.

All of that is now gone. Sure, there are still people who make decisions about what is heard or recorded, but they are becoming increasingly irrelevant, and this change is also affecting broadcast radio. In a sense, a station like ABC Classic FM is still like an old totalitarian state – everyone will listen to what is chosen for them to listen to....