Groove Column: On MP3 blogging (August 2007)

Hi folks,

last summer Heiko Hoffman the editor of Groove magazine asked me to write a bi-monthly guest column. The brief was only that it shouldn't be about records particularly and should instead be more observational / thoughtful. "Four hundred words, every two months, it won't take very much time at all" he said. "A piece of piss", I thought, my ego glowing smugly.

Actually, coming up with something that isn't either dull and worthy or blindly self-regarding DJ twaddle ("so there I was with Richie in Miami, darling...") is quite hard (and keeping it down to such a short length whilst maintaining a proper argument even harder). But some people have kindly said they enjoy reading them so I thought I would post my original English versions here too (before publication they are expertly translated into German by the lovely Heiko).

The first five are coming over the next few days, and then I'll post new ones every two months as they appear in Groove. Keen-eyed readers will notice the first one covers some familiar ground...

cheers m'dears,
ewan
x

Groove Column: On MP3 blogging.

I became really excited when music blogging first started. The passion, the bile, the ranting arguments between bloggers and the sheer hyperbole reminded me of the NME in the 80s, when I fell in love with reading and writing about pop.

Occasionally the NME included a vinyl EP with rare tracks and outtakes from its favourite bands on the cover. These days many highly-esteemed blogs include download links to the tracks they write about. MP3 blogs make me feel very uncomfortable indeed and their popularity says so much about our kid-in-a-candy-store culture, and the crises in music as a profession at the moment. I have three objections; one ethical, one practical and one romantic.

The first is very basic: giving away things that don't belong to you is wrong. Now I know that blogs have become a promotional tool for some bands and record labels, but part of me screams out that we’re adding to the development of a culture in no one thinks that musicians should be paid for what they do - it should just be a gift to society. After all we enjoy our job; how dare we ask to make a living from it as well?

Then there is the bottom line. Most people in dance music are aiming to sell a small amount of a specialist product; a blogger giving away mp3s of that great new single will take away a large percentage of sales. It’s happening now. Record sales have plummeted and it’s largely due to piracy. I’m lucky to have another life as a DJ. But for producers that don't DJ, or people who have spent years trying to run independent labels it's the most difficult time ever and it's just getting worse.

The third reason is romantic; part of me thinks that if the writing on a blog is good enough you don't have to have the music there to back it up. The NME stopped giving away vinyl singles after a couple of weeks - I kept buying it. If you have bribe people to come to your page with sweets you aren’t a good enough writer. If you have to play the damn track rather than evoke it or describe it so that people want to go out and hear it then what are you doing writing a blog in the first place?

If you're a music blogger and you care about music then write about it. If you have to give examples then stream it lo-res and tell people where they can go and buy it. Great music writing should excite the reader enough into going and searching for the music themselves, hunt that record, go to that gig. And maybe even paying for some of it too.

(published August 2007)

Comments

[Autoversicherung]

Very good comment. My Favorit Blog Autoversicherung

[Chef Napalm]

OTM. Personally, I made a commitment to vinyl and I don't see anything shaking that commitment. That said, I'm not a jetset international DJ, so my records can sit on my shelf rather than being lost by the airline.