It would be kind of pointless for me to point you some of my own references, as chances are we have very different taste...
One of the points you make is a valid one: there's plenty more people doing music today then there was before. Not just music, there's also plenty more people taking photos and sharing them to! There's plenty more people talking and communicating in a number of ways, such as this one, a public forum. Thus, there's a lot more information sharing. Access to information and technology has made it a lot easier for people to accomplish more and to go after their dreams and that usually means that a lot more people are going to do things that were once, at best, reserved for a select elite of people who had the educational background and, many times, the money to engage in what used to be very restricted activities. Music production is just one of them.
I don't see how having access to information, even if it's about sound design, doing some kind of patch on Massive or something, is necessarily bad! I think people have the opportunity to learn faster, 'cause they now have the means to do so without the need to enrol in paid for, highly expensive, sometimes not so direct, forms of education. If you want to know how, for example, a comb filter works, you can just type it in youtube or google and take it from there. Then it's up to you, as it always was.
However, there's plenty more music and stuff to choose from and it's progressively harder to separate what's good from what's bad - even though this is a highly subjective subject as with all things concerning taste and aesthetics. And this also means that the artist - in most cases - doesn't enjoy a wide market of fans and supporters, that allow him to live of his artistic endeavours.
I think that there's a lot of things that are actually better. Most people look at it from a biased point of view. What I mean is: digital technology (in audio) has always been judged by how it compares to or, worse, how it's able to emulate analogue technology. It was always like that with any new form of technology. History is there to tell you this. But in many ways, digital has allowed us to achieve a level of detail in sound that was impossible to achieve before, among many other things. And there's enough people exploring this in very creative ways and sharing it with other people and many sub genres and scenes are growing with a small number of people whose efforts are being constantly updated among themselves and perhaps even some audience to. This is all good, besides judging how good or how bad some stuff sounds to you and me, this strikes me as a level of connection between people and ideas, procedures, technical info, and so on, that's quite revolutionary by itself.
Instead of complaining about how easy it is to find some "how to" videos online, do a more focused search and you're able to find professional laboured videos and complete courses even of just about any subject you can imagine that can aid you in achieving whatever it is you want. And it's either free or cheap, but it's certainly a lot easier then a few decades before, 'cause it's just two clicks away...
I see a lot of people engaged in actually learning their tools. In learning how to program synths, learning how to mix properly, trying to improve their compositional skills, so forth and so on, that it would be unfair to say that most people rely on presets and formulaic ways of doing things. Maybe there's people doing it, but they hardly get anywhere near a professional carrier doing so. People can tell the difference, 'cause it shows. So the argument I'm making here is that: yes, plenty of amateur stuff out there. But if you spot some name on a lineup, chances are it took some hard work to get there, regardless of our opinion on its aesthetics...
What I see is quite the opposite: I think people now have the tools to learn faster. I think it's easier to engage with other people in learning, doing things together, sharing info. It's also easier to engage with the audiences directly. MTV sucks, but it's their editorial choices that make it so dude. Along with the rest of the big media groups. But now you don't actually need them. You have the means to find, share, make, discuss, comment on, analyse, etc.
The magic is lost is an old and tired argument. Do it like the things you love then! If there's no more of it, then there must be someone out there waiting for it, just like you! Music making is about putting out there the music you wanted to listen to but couldn't find anywhere, isn't it? So keep a positive attitude and enjoy the good parts of it! Cheers
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