Blogs evolved from a gathering place for people looking to waste time into a prime platform for content creators: from early podcasts to sketch comedy to low-budget/high quality music videos. And thanks to those very same blogs, artists figured out just how far the internet reached. Curren$y, Nicki Minaj and Dom Kennedy, once seen as niche, regional acts, found fans from coast to coast and then some. For the first time, artists could get free distribution, create a very loyal fanbase and pull in millions of dollars, without the weight of a label behind them.