That's been the issue for years ever since the late 50's when you could no longer press singles in little studios and then get radio DJ's to just play when they thought was good. Payola came around some time in that time period or a little after that.
But, I think the internet has potential to get around that. So far, it has become dominated by big companies like Apple and the major record labels. But since most people now download most, if not all of their music, the production costs for small unsigned bands would be much lower to get their music out there. All a band or a small independent label has to do is have a server, a pay pall account and a web site where you can download the music at a cost. You don't need a factors to press/burn albums, a large distribution system or even radio airplay to be heard.
Despite that, music is more or less stale right now. But, I think the revolution will come and it will come lead by bands/small labels selling directly to consumers over the internet. Now we just need the artists to catch up with the technology.