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Since I started blogging about digital music late last year, I’ve heard from readers who say they don’t listen to popular music but find the whole illegal downloading and file sharing debate interesting.
Others have suggested artists and bands I might like, and some said they’ve become fans of artists I blogged about. Some of you have turned me on to new artists and new sounds. I may buy a track or two or three. I rarely buy albums. Rarer still will I buy a physical CD. In fact, I may never buy another CD, unless a favorite band decides to release a new album on CD only.
The point is that in a small way, readers and I have been engaged in “digital discovery.”
Musically
In the digital age, it’s both easy and difficult to find new bands and artists. Let’s take file sharing web sites out of the equation for a moment. If someone suggests an artist or band, and you want to hear the music, all you’d need to do (most of the time) is surf to the artist’s or band’s site and listen to a song. Hopefully, they’ll have at least two songs available for full streaming. If not, the artist or band probably has a MySpace page, where you can listen to full versions of a few songs. In this way, the Internet has made music discovery easy.
Back in the day, people bought music based on what they heard on the radio. If bands (esp. independent) can’t get radio airplay, how do they get their music out there for discovery? They need to promote like crazy, online and offline, and allow users to listen to full versions of their songs.
On the other hand, there are “tens of millions” of music tracks out there. People who create and promote this music are competing with each other for our attention, which is already stretched to capacity. With scarce attention and a seemingly limitless supply of stuff out there (again, thanks to the Internet), finding new artists that we might like is difficult.
Media consultant David Jennings, author of Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Digital Discovery Works and What it Means for Consumers, Creators and Culture, wrote about how music services are trying to make digital discovery easier and more productive. Music streaming sites like Pandora, Last.FM, and iMeem allow users to listen to full tracks. The services and their users make recommendations based on your listening habits. Review sites like eMusic and All Media Guide help users navigate a vast sea of stuff.
But even these aren’t enough.
Personally
Of course, there are more important things going on in the world than “digital discovery,” but I’m on a quest to help people interested in finding new music and reading about tech issues in the context of music digitally discover me.
My blog has changed focus, and there’s a readership mismatch. How do I help readers trying to find digital music info find me? Ah, the age-old question for any blogger! One way is to become fully immersed in all things digital tech, blog in earnest about digital music, and write related articles for print and online publications. (Ah, the age-old quest of any freelance writer!)
(Side note: My latest aspirations are to land cover stories in Christianity Today and Wired magazines and sell, for six figures, a book proposal about…still hammering out the topic. Ha! Who do I think I am?)
Because I’ve blogged about politics for so long, I still feel the residual effects. I get e-mails from TV news show and others producers asking me to talk about the political race in the context of race (can’t stomach it anymore). Echoing country singer Rissi Palmer, who turned down a potentially star-making deal offered by R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because they wanted to tone down the twang, “[T]his could be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done before in my life, but I just don’t feel right about it.”
People still send links to political stories and posts, hoping I’ll take the bait and offer a rant or a reasoned critique. Even as I write, readers are landing on and bloggers are linking to old posts and analyzing them as if they were fresh.
My political past is a part of me, and it follows me everywhere. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just want to do something else, talk about something else, blog about something else.
Alas, I’m attending a rather high-profile political event tonight, having accepted a gracious invitation from a blogging friend. Couldn’t turn it down. Who knows what will happen? Perhaps I’ll meet a jaded former political blogger or two who showed up hoping to find fellow former political bloggers. Perhaps we’ll have a long conversation about our growing mutual interest in something other than politics.
One great thing about doing the unexpected is the chance to gain fresh perspective. Discovering new things about yourself and the world, digitally or otherwise, can be habit-forming. 
Update (11:42 p.m.): I’m glad I didn’t shun this political event. Tonight I met Tony Snow, President Bush’s former press secretary. Earlier today I wrote that perhaps I’d meet jaded former political bloggers who wanted to do something else. Well, Tony’s not a blogger, and he’s not giving up political commentary. After I told him I stopped blogging about politics, but will always blog about my faith, he said he wanted to write more about his faith.
And he plays in a band. 
Rest easy this weekend, readers.
