The most significant thing that struck me at Digital Music Forum West over the past two days is that despite the dismal state of the music industry – and the economy as a whole – there’s tremendous opportunity for growth right now in digital music.

The opportunity is large and out there for creators, investors, and artists who are willing to take risks through experimentation and outside-of-the-proverbial-box thinking. I found the panels to be inspiring because something exciting is percolating under the surface this time around. Discussions were less about policy – and more about the encouragement of creating and discovering something new.

Many of the new tools invoke change and are on the cusp of something great all while taking the needs of the listener/user in mind.

Buzzwords: pandora, imeem, recommendation, discovery, user generated content, tags, API, ad supported, niche.

As listeners increasingly participate in the process of music selection, recommendation and playback, I wonder if editorial heavy sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum will eventually be edged out by sites like Hype Machine (blogs aggregator), playlist.com and The Filter (discovery), all of which empower the user to find and share new music on their own.

What do you think?