Forgive me, but in terms of digital recording I don't agree at all. I think digital allows many more people to record their creative music and then get it out there, using the web.
Before that, recording studios had a lock on, well, recorded music. Then the labels decided what was commercial enough to press and market, unless you were paying for the whole thing yourself. The creators of the music were often last in line in the process, and money was a big deciding factor in whatever happened.
As far as sounding mechanical for example, when I record, I use both digital and tape, and I also use real drums mixed with sampled drums (often my own drums sampled). Software drum plugins, like Superior Drummer, use a fuzzy logic where you can vary the drums in a way a real drummer would.
This idea or fad that digital music 'has no soul' is all too often something that is spread by people in the industry who feel threatened by the encroachment of technology on what has formerly been their exclusive domain. I see it as a liberation of creativity that allows artists to reach out directly to an audience of listeners that was denied to them before.
