[xouse]

Yes. Music trackers have always been a ton of effort, but in their prime trackers had the advantage of having basically a monopoly on music discovery. If you wanted to find out about citypop in 2011 what.cd was the place, now youtube will recommended it to you on a Joe Rogan video.

People didn't go to what.cd and jump through all those hoops to find rare music, they went to find good music, and now Spotify and YouTube do a good enough job of that with a lot less effort.

As a funny example of that I discovered Billie Eilish when Ocean Eyes first came out from a private tracker and now she's about as big as anyone. So it isn't just about discovering rare czech folk singers, but any music that you might like.

I think the hardcore demographic you mentioned is spot on and does exist, but they were always a minority and the evaporation of the less hardcore users explains why the scene is so much smaller now.