Tyler Cowen has some astute Q&A on John Cage:
1. Is it actually good music?
Much of it is, once you get past the gimmicks. For direct musical listening (skip 4’33″) I recommend the piano music, most of all by Herbert Henck or David Tudor or Stephen Drury. The important pieces have held up very well, and even the lesser pieces still are worth hearing at least once.
2. If I wish to try one important piece?
Perhaps “In a Landscape,” on this CD.
"This CD" being the Stephen Drury recording of Cage's piano music, as good as any. I do think 4'33" makes for a great listening experience, though.
When you’re checking out a song on SoundCloud, you’ll have a visual
representation of the music (a waveform). By placing a comment directly
on the waveform, it allows you to say something about the structure of
the track. Let’s say you like the track that’s playing, but you feel
the extra rhodes lick that kicks in 2’33 is out of tune. You can then
place a comment on that moment that reads something like : « the song
is great, but that rhodes is way out of tune ! 
