The future…

You may well have noticed that things have been a little stop-start at casa-EbM, and the reasons for this are twofold.  Firstly, writing posts of any value is a time consuming occupation and I’m a busy man (“Fie!” I hear you cry, and maybe with good reason…).  The main reason, however, is more of a semantic one.  I’m only just beginning to emerge from a fug of indecision and uncertainty that has shrouded these pages of late.  This fug was brought on in part by the DMCA trouble I got caught up in following some careless mp3 action on my Mumford & Sons and Big Pink posts, causing me to reassess my mp3 posting policy.  I will now be complying a little more strictly with a few basic rules about posting, but that wasn’t the sole reason for my uncertainty.

The big question I was faced with was how best to balance the reviews and the more “editorial” content.  The reviews I post provide the meat-n-veg of this blog, and give it a purpose and a mission, and by-and-large I try to steer clear of the more “bloggy” aspects of blogging;  nobody wants to read my diary, surely?  On the flip side, when I read other blogs and magazines I do enjoy reading proper articles about the more general aspects of the music world, and therefore imagine that a few of you would enjoy seeing that style of content on these pages too.  Thus I do occasionally indulge myself with rambling not-quite-review posts from time to time.  When I started this enterprise a more than a year ago I did a regular “top five” list feature, but that was a little too disciplined for me to keep it up for long, and now I stick to the occasional “article” whenever the mood takes me.  Anyway, rambling aside, I think this site could do with a little more article-style content and I shall endeavor to provide some.

As a case in point, last week’s Remix post – the first non-review post in quite a while – has produced one of the best comment threads that this site has ever seen.  After an initial deluge of criticism (some rational and articulate, some not so much…) something resembling a reasoned debate emerged, with people coming from all angles to have their say.  In fact, such was the detail and strength of opinion expressed in some of the responses we’re considering devoting the next Bearfaced Podcast to the topic.

So what does 2010 have to offer here at EbM? Expect plenty more reviews, as per usual, but there’ll also be a little bit more in the way of editorial content; so stand by to correct me, agree with me, or just put in your two-pence in the comments section.  It’d be nice to build something of a “community” here – when the posts inspire comments it makes the experience all the richer for everyone involved, and it does me good to have my opinions challenged and debated.  That said, I can’t imagine this post inspiring too much debate; I promise to keep meta-blog posts to a minimum from now on.  Although if there’s anything you’d like to see less or more of on these pages then write a comment and I’ll see what I can do…

 

Say what?

I’ve made some spurious claims about being an mp3 blog lately, as well as contradicting myself with regard to not posting stuff from major labels, so I guess I’d best clarify my position.

Basically, posting downloads of other people’s music is a breach of the originator’s (the artist, composer, whoever…) legal rights.  Most blogs mp3 justify themselves by talking about “promotion for the artist” and other (quite frankly rather shaky) claims about new audiences buying CDs because they got a taster from a blog somewhere.  I certainly purchase music that I’ve found out about from blogs, and there’s a strong chance that the other people who write music blogs do too.  However, I’ll be the first to admit that I live in quite a rarefied environment when it comes to music (basically, I’m an obsessive) and your average reader/listener isn’t quite so geeky; meaning they can’t really be bothered to spend money on something when they can get it for free from blogs/torrents/wherever.  Also, it’s still just plain illegal, regardless of whether or not the artist benefits somewhere down the line.

All is not lost, however, as there are still some groovy artists and small labels out there who do think blogs can make a positive difference to their careers.  I receive a fair few presspacks and demos and CDs by people who want me to talk about and/or play their music; and I’m a tiny fish in an ocean of DIY music writers.  Blogs like Song, by Toad, and Daily Growl get by almost exclusively on content that’s been sent directly to them.  The bottom line is this; any promotion is good news for small/new bands and artists, and many of them are happy to let a blogger post a song or two of theirs.

So apologies for the long and rather dull post, but I feel it’s necessary to state that from this moment on, all mp3 download links posted in this blog are either available for free online elsewhere anyway (and I’ll always post a link to the original site) or I have the express permission of the artist to give the track away.