What Is The True Worth Of A Music Blog Feature?
A reflective piece on the flux of integrity within music journalism
I was forced to ask myself this question following the piece I wrote last year on the Digi Crates label and the theft of revenue from the Nujabes estate. The head (Hus Kingpin) of operations had been outed by many including more than half of the original roster who were cheated out of royalties owed from albums sold globally. The rapper now seems to enjoy even more success with music site features than before, under the recently formed “The Winners” imprint.
We’re talking about support from high click traffic sites including: 2DopeBoyz, HipHopDX, EgoTripLand, AllHipHop, Nah Right and Complex UK most recently (ironically all within the Complex Media Network). Newspaper publications like The Independent UK, had dubbed the rapper’s “$100 Dollar Taper” LP one of the best US Hip-Hop releases of 2014. The album was listed under the same label (Digi Crates) that had been assumed defunct following the rappers efforts to save face.
Having sent music of my own and other artists to websites like UCTL, OkayPlayer, Wax Poetics Japan etc. my personal experiences with features has left me with appreciative sensibilities. I’ve had alot of emails ignored and music rejected but this did not drive me to desperate lengths. Rather I was given a greater sense of purpose to be able to break down the high dependency that myself and music of artists I enjoyed had on these news outlets. Many of these blog features happened without the aid of a paid publicist or payment sent to site editors/writers for “promotional services rendered”. At the same time a part of me can’t knock great artists for wanting to hire professionals in a genuine struggle to construct press emails and build up dialogue.
I consider a payola like system within music journalism disingenuous, not only to the reader but also to the artist/record label that engages in it. An artist can easily be disillusioned into believing they’ve received the feature based on their abilities being deserving of It. Confusion and annoyance ensues amongst the readers that don’t understand why they’re being force fed music updates about the same few artists they have no interest in.
Similar to nationally syndicated radio I can continue not to expect full blown transparency amongst websites concerning content that has been created in return of payment from the subject. With large readership gained over several years dwindling and publications being forced to shut down to cut losses, It is clear that survival by any means is on the cards for the remaining outlets that are heavily driven by monetization. Websites that rely only on legitimate advertising, merchandise, subscription and reader based donation schemes are very important to indie artists/up and comers as a result of this.
A major label has financial resources that are unparalleled to that of indie artists. So when It comes to quantifying a site/publication feature, It could be defined by what the elite has no problem paying, integrity be damned.
I am brought back to the open ended question I asked in the title of this piece. What is the true worth of a music blog feature? Why do we (the consumers) hold greater value to a music release announced by a blog than by the artist/label themselves? Has the over-importance in blog features contributed to the demise in wider artistic creativity and integrity?
