Tuesday, May 6 @ 6:42 a.m. PT: Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! 
I met country singer Rissi Palmer last Friday at the Stagecoach Festival. The photo of us isn’t the best quality, but there it is. As people I meet often tell me about my photos, Rissi’s photos don’t do her justice. She’s downright radiant. I reviewed the show for Blog Critics. I’ll link when it’s up.
Later…Check out the review.
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5:38 p.m. PT: Just to see if I have the discipline, I’m going completely offline Friday. No e-mail, no Twitter, no Facebook, no MySpace, no blogs, no news sites. (And no Treo-surfing, either.) Nada. If you e-mailed me this week, I’ll reply next week.
The work week is done, and I’m Stagecoach Festival-bound. Yee-haw! And I’ll be 41 on Monday, May 5. Woo-hoo! I think I’ll take that day off, too.
“‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!”
But before I go, a word about independent music blogs and news sites selling out to The Man.
You like money, right? Who doesn’t? Money makes the world go ’round, as they say. Money’s quite useful for paying bills, obtaining clothes and shoes, food, a new computer, a birthday cake and 41 candles, digital music, etc.
While the RIAA sues music fans and lobbies Congress for tougher copyright infringement laws (to the tune of $2.1 million last year), at least one major label is climbing into bed with the revolutionaries. Music blog and social networking site Buzznet acquired music blogs Idolator (formerly Gawker Media property) and Stereogum. Fine. Nothing wrong with that. But Buzznet also received $25 million from Universal Music Group (UMG) as an “investment.” UMG is one of the notorious Big Four major record labels.
Desperate to gain a foothold in the aftermath of a digital seismic shift that’s shaken the music industry’s foundation, UMG is licensing its catalog for streaming music and videos and also will provide “editorial content” from artists. In other words, UMG’s artists/clients will guest blog at Buzznet. Smell a potential conflict of interest?
Listening Post blogger Eliot Van Buskirk does. UMG’s investment and content could taint Buzznet’s independence, or at least its perceived independence. Will users rebel against UMG’s artists, embrace them, or fall somewhere in between? And aren’t music blogs’ independence part of their allure? They are havens for independent musicians, advocates of the obscure. What kind of blog-press will they get once major record labels buy up popular music blogs? Accepting ads for revenue is one thing; accepting multiple millions from a major record label is quite another.
This morning I read that the corporation Viacom may have bought a music blog post aggregator called Hype Machine, which I browse occasionally, for $10 million. (Source) Viacom, as you may know, is a “media conglomerate” that owns MTV, VH1, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures, TV Land, Nickelodeon – in other words, everything. Will Hype Machine become a tool of the corporation and promote Viacom’s properties at the expense of what it does best: help people discover music?
Who among us would have the will to resist a deep-pocketed mogul waving money in our faces? Mama does need a new pair of shoes.
The Man just can’t keep his hands off the latest, hot new (and profitable) thing, can he?
Bruce Houghton of Hypebot asks, Will Indies Be Left Out Of Music 2.0?
Related posts:
- Warner Music Sues to Squash The Search
- RIAA’s “Make Available” Claim Smacked Down Again
- Glimpses of God: Rissi Palmer
