Re:Dropped (2014)
by davidgerard on Saturday January 07, 2017 @12:46PM
(#13345419)
See Economist link below on what happened to the New Musical Express. Even in the '80s and '90s (when I was doing rock journalism for money), the pay was bloody dismal and the main attraction was that it beat working for a living; but even that's now largely gone.
The situation now:
* before the Internet, you could read about a record - but hearing it required hard work, happenstance or money we didn’t have. It could take years between seeing the name of some potentially-interesting band or song and actually hearing them. (Rather than just going to YouTube, where someone has lovingly ripped their old vinyl copy.) A note on this experience: https://rocknerd.co.uk/2016/06/02/false-memories-of-feelings... So before, music press got the word out about music before the music itself could get there. But it's no longer necessary to that function, even as it can still be useful.
* With the rise of blogs, opinion is as readily available as the music itself. Approximately nobody is going to pay money for this shit. (This is a special case of the problem affecting journalism in general.) Only the biggest blogs and sites can sell the ads they need to. Per comment below, The NME is now an entertainment guide given away outside tube stations. The problem for professional music critics/press is that they're competing with literally everyone everywhere now, the same problem artists have: https://rocknerd.co.uk/2013/09/13/culture-is-not-about-aesth...
About the only press I can think of that's done at all well is the tech press, who ripped down those tedious walls between editorial and advertising and reluctance to live off payola around the turn of the millennium and turned into utter and unapologetic shills. And even then the competition is bloody vicious.
tl;dr the problem: you and I are in competition with literally everyone now.
I'm not entirely displeased at music journalism being stabbed through its putrid little heart; way too much about it was gatekeeping rather than enthusiasm. I do think everything is much better now for culture.
Oh, and cheers to a label on Bandcamp :-D Bandcamp is IMO THE BEST thing to happen to selling music on the net, like, ever.
The situation now:
* before the Internet, you could read about a record - but hearing it required hard work, happenstance or money we didn’t have. It could take years between seeing the name of some potentially-interesting band or song and actually hearing them. (Rather than just going to YouTube, where someone has lovingly ripped their old vinyl copy.) A note on this experience: https://rocknerd.co.uk/2016/06/02/false-memories-of-feelings... So before, music press got the word out about music before the music itself could get there. But it's no longer necessary to that function, even as it can still be useful.
* With the rise of blogs, opinion is as readily available as the music itself. Approximately nobody is going to pay money for this shit. (This is a special case of the problem affecting journalism in general.) Only the biggest blogs and sites can sell the ads they need to. Per comment below, The NME is now an entertainment guide given away outside tube stations. The problem for professional music critics/press is that they're competing with literally everyone everywhere now, the same problem artists have: https://rocknerd.co.uk/2013/09/13/culture-is-not-about-aesth...
About the only press I can think of that's done at all well is the tech press, who ripped down those tedious walls between editorial and advertising and reluctance to live off payola around the turn of the millennium and turned into utter and unapologetic shills. And even then the competition is bloody vicious.
tl;dr the problem: you and I are in competition with literally everyone now.
I'm not entirely displeased at music journalism being stabbed through its putrid little heart; way too much about it was gatekeeping rather than enthusiasm. I do think everything is much better now for culture.
Oh, and cheers to a label on Bandcamp :-D Bandcamp is IMO THE BEST thing to happen to selling music on the net, like, ever.