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caitlin // 19 Mar 10 // Music Opinion Technology

Too Many Music Blogs, or Never Enough?

Music blogs: Everyone has one, from your annoying 13 year-old little brother to your heady 40 year-old aunt. Some internet sleuths may hate having to wade through the dense mass of links that crop up once MGMT is searched, but experts dare say that having so many voices accessible to the general public is a positive thing for the industry, overall.

“Real, true fans will do more coverage than any other person would do,” says Jesse Ervin of EMI/Capitol records. Now, I had expected a big-wig, record label head to fully oppose today’s citizen-as-journalist phenomenon, but I was shocked to hear that everyone on the panel–from international labels like EMI, to artist management companies like Sideways Media, to independent music bloggers–agreed with Ervin.

The panel’s main argument in support of music blogging was buried in the fact that, in their opinion, a blogger tends to lend a more human voice to editorial content than traditional journalists. If a blogger is really, really excited about the Dead Weather show they just saw two hours prior, they have the authority to go on and on about their experience on their site, unrestricted by word-count or editors.

It’s a “new multimedia experience for fans,” explained Greg Swann of Perfect Porridge, “Readers are growing to expect that from the mainstream media, as well.”

What he means is that the aforementioned Dead Weather fan doesn’t have to choose just one photo to run in tomorrow’s paper alongside their story. Rather, they can link 12 photos immediately following the show and further link to their entire Flickr gallery, giving their fans near real-time access from every viable angle.

Ervin spends a lot of his time convincing his EMI/Capitol clients why connecting with this digital demographic is so important. At Sideways Media, this is exactly what they aim to teach their artists–that the value of connecting with bloggers to rapidly spread their music surpasses the speed of traditional journalism.

But the key ingredient comes in connection. If the artists don’t interact with their fans and the conversation is entirely one-sided, the conversation then qualifies as nothing more than spam. Thus, artists are taught and pushed to answer questions, elicit feedback, and go the extra mile via Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and interviews.

And it seems the music industry is catching on. Take, for example, the fact that the Warped Tour website has evolved into a dynamic social media site for its fans. Or the fact that record labels have entire departments devoted to online marketing. Or lastly, that a blogger blindly sending an email from Ohio for an interview with a Capitol-signed artist won’t be automatically turned away for lack of credentials.

Of course, where a lot of support can be found, there’s an equal amount of opposition lurking around the corner. I’d be interested to hear your opinion on music blogs in this day and age. Is there too much saturation? Or are they helping you find and appreciate music?