In this article, the author examines the ways in which Internet-based musical environments have established relationships between individuals and communities inside new public spaces, and have blurred the distinction between producers and consumers. He discusses both the pros and cons of this emerging practice; in particulr, his concern that the more cultural differences are approached with apparent nonchalance and without any preliminary presentation, the more the experience of immediate access may pre-empt the possibility of any cultural mediation derived from the assimilation of musical content.