"So you'd be less likely to bother checking it out, right?"

Not sure really - sometimes bad reviews still contain little details that make me want to go and have a listen.

But it's almost academic, because in three clicks - a matter of seconds - I can be listening to someone's myspace or YouTube page. "Less likely to check something out" is pretty much meaningless: I check out almost everything. I'm in front of a computer all day and spend most of it listening to music (CDs, Spotify and myspace). For me, it's quite a challenge to AVOID hearing what someone sounds like these days.