My last post on the subject went over like the proverbial lead ballon, so I am going to take another--more wordy--stab at it.
I have been thinking a lot about the music business lately. (Disclaimer: I am older than most of you, so my experience might be a little bit different. Also I have no idea what the music retail business is like in Europe). Anyway, what I'm thinking is that I really miss the independent music stores I used to find all over town in the old days. They were a great place to find like-minded individuals and hear really cool stuff that wasn't being played on the radio. For a number of reasons, those places are pretty much gone (or empty) where I come from. And they are sorely missed.
But, fear not, music blogs are taking there place! The kind of information (and personalities) that I used to find at my local independent music store I am now finding on the web at various music blogs (or mp3 blogs, to be precise).
They are a great place to find music and commentary that you can't hear elsewhere. They are a bit controversial because they include mp3 downloads, but in my opinion, they do a lot more good than harm. Since I've started reading blogs, I have spend a lot more money on music because I'm hearing new cool things.
So my questions are: (1) Do you visit music blogs? Example: Aquarium Drunkard.
(2) Do you use music blogs or see any value in them?
(3) Do you think they are good or bad for artists?
I rarely go to music blogs anymore because they are so hit and miss and quite a lot of work to search through. I might as well just listen to albums myself which doesn't take that much more work nowadays with subscription plans and such.
I used to go to Said the Grammaphone and the Bubblegum Machine a lot and once in awhile I took a look at the latest stuff on Hype Machine. But, unlike the radio their isn't any format to music blogs and it's the reason that radio won't be killed off completely. It might change, but there still is somewhat of a desire for radio I think.
One other thought about music blogs: Hardly anybody is reading the blog. I know I don't want to read five paragraphs about a song I kind of like. Although, I don't like music blogs that just post 15-20 songs without any commentary either. A short paragraph about the context of the song or a background of the band would be perfect. An essay on every song is annoying especially when it has nothing to do with the song at all.
(4) If you go to blogs, what do you like and what turns you off?
Thanks!
Also, I wonder if internet radio can fill the same void as music blogs. I haven't explpored it much, but it would seem to be a great way to have a wide variety of specifically targetted stations.
To answer (1) Do you visit music blogs?:
Yes, I just for the very first time visited The Allmusic Blog.
(2) Do you use music blogs or see any value in them?
No, and I don't see the added value some much yet with the one I just saw (over normal music web sites).
(3) Do you think they are good or bad for artists?
Good, I guess. The more you can read on artists and their work, the better you can select what to buy and the more you hopefully will appreciate what you buy. This is also beneficial for the artist, who hopes to reach a specific target group.
(4) If you go to blogs, what do you like and what turns you off?
Blogs are convenient for exchanging information, when e.g. a friend is at the other end of the world for a while and writes about his/her experiences in the blog (a kind of public personal diary). As John already mentioned, a lot of blogs suffer from information overload and are not easy to navigate through. I guess, this applies to music blogs too.
another topic on this forum encouraged me to do some research on the impact of file sharing on the music industry. free mp3 downloads would have a pretty similar effect so i feel that it's relevant here. for less popular artists, file sharing actually helped their sales (obviously due to the extra exposure). the opposite happened for popular artists though. overall, best estimates held file sharing between 0-30% responsible for the decline in sales over the past few years. point is, these music blogs probably have quite a positive effect for unknown artists, similar to file sharing.