So much to choose from -- isn't the Net great? But there's a problem: I don't know what I want, or rather, I want something that I don't know. Something new, something fresh, something that hasn't already been pummeled into my ears by Sony or AOL Time Warner or MTV. I want someone to tell me, in effect, "Try this, you'll like it." I want expert, personal treatment that will cut through all the chaff and guide me directly to the gems.

Most of all, I want the Net to deliver on its promise to break the chains that hold us in thrall to the major record labels -- I want it to expose me to new, unheard-of bands. Ever since a little outfit called IUMA got started back even before the Web broke big, I've been hearing about how the Net will cut out the middleman and usher in an era where the little guy has a chance. But until now, I've been waiting in vain. And so have all those obscure garage bands hoping that the Web will give them a leg up.

Big stars still rule the roost, with only a few exceptions. Despite the advice of a staff of informed critics, Listen.com's top downloads are Madonna, Eminem and Britney Spears. And although a few savvily marketed indie bands have broken through, MP3.com's top 40 downloads are still riddled with pop acts like Madonna, Eric Clapton and Faith Hill. The Net may have made available more music than ever before, but fans still aren't listening to a lot of new tunes.

Back in 1996, an MIT Media Lab-backed company called Firefly thought it had figured out a solution to the problem, and launched the personalized music recommendation system "BigNote." Using a technology known as "collaborative filtering," BigNote was supposed to suggest new bands you might enjoy based on the ratings of other users with similar tastes. It was a neat concept and it spawned a frenzy of competitors. For years, "personalization" was a buzz word to rival all others. But unfortunately for new music fans, Firefly just didn't work very well. Like so many other buzz words of the late '90s, personalization tantalized but never arrived.

Fast forward to 2001. Another company has emerged from Boston: Media Unbound. Like Firefly, Media Unbound is offering a personalized recommendation system that will suggest bands you might enjoy, based on ones that you already like. Unlike Firefly, Media Unbound does what it promises to do: introduce new, obscure bands you'll actually like.

And Media Unbound isn't alone -- there's also Mubu.com, which offers a similar service; and MoodLogic, which takes a more search-engine approach. Similarly, the music-discovery search engine Gigabeat was purchased by Napster two weeks ago.

And that's where it gets interesting. If personalization that works truly has broken through, it's possible to imagine a future in which obscure bands do get more time in the sun. Because personalized music recommendation technology in combination with file-trading services like Napster or Gnutella could be an amazingly potent brew. Get the recommendation, listen to the tune via Napster, then click a button and buy the CD. Finally, we may be at the verge of escaping the industry-imposed domination of pop pablum, a world in which the only albums you know to buy are the bland Top 40 hits churned out by your local radio station. Speaking optimistically, personalization may turn out to be not just a cheap buzzword that helps Web sites lure that V.C. cash, but the best thing to happen to indie bands and music fans since, well, the Net.

"In the future, helping people find, discover and navigate music content is going to be really important," says Michael Papish, the youthfully exuberant founder of Media Unbound, a Harvard student who left school to start the company. "When you have a subscription service you have access to all this music, 3 million songs; what do you listen to? How do you find it? If you don't have something to help you, it's no better than FM radio or listening to CDs; there's just too much out there."

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