***Scroll down for updates***
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.
Continue reading Digital Discovery: Musically and Personally
I was so busy this week, I forgot about my “blogiversary.” On Monday, November 5, this blog turned four years old. LBC has received about 3.9 million unique visitors since I signed up with Site Meter in May 2004.
Once again, thanks for reading my blog. 
Blogging is in the blood, baby.
Update (11/10): My new title: Writer-in-Residence at Biola University.
About Vegas: If you had no conscience and a lot of money, you could have a really good time/get in big trouble (the same thing, in most cases!). Now I know why people say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
That’s all I’m saying.
Update II (11/11): Biola London? Hmmm…
Update III (11/12): Likewise, John Mark. See you next year, Godbloggers!
Tuesday, May 8: Thanks very much for the well wishes, everyone! I appreciate the comments, e-mails, and gifts. It’s easy to look at a birthday as a “new beginning,” especially a “milestone” like 40, but I’m getting my second wind. My life has changed significantly in the last 10 years, and I hope the next ten will be even better. What next, God?
Thanks, again!
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Today I’m 40! Whoa…
I’m thinking only happy thoughts today. That means NO politics. No news. No surfing. Just hanging out with family and friends, celebrating my 40th year on the planet. It will be a happy day.
My before-I-turn-40-goal from last year was to have a book deal by now. You know, I’d probably have one if I weren’t such a procrastinator and bad prioritizer. I’m focused on maintaining and acquiring new consulting work (must come first - bills, bills, bills!), keeping up with this blog, and trying to crank out columns. There are ready, willing, and able folks waiting for me to put pen to paper and send a proposal.
To make it so, I’ll have to let something go. Temporarily. Or else give up sleep. Or my offline life.
Wish me luck!
Happy birthday to me! And thanks for reading LBC. And the other blog.
Update II (12/20): Some truth, much exaggeration…and a bit of blog envy? More on media bashing.
Update (12/19): Fellow Examiner Blog Board of Contributors blogger Dan Gillmor on “Citizen media is shifting power back to the people.”
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AND YOU, TOO, bloggers, blog readers, Wikipedians, YouTube-ers, and everyone else who contributes to and consumes a growing pile of information — user-generated content — on the web. 
It’s a gimmick, but I’ll bite.
Filed under: Bloggers, Me, Me, Me, Media Bias
Deborah Howell, Washington Post Ombudsman
ombudsman@washpost.com
Dear Ms. Howell,
In yesterday’s Washington Post, you bemoaned the excess of white male opinion writers and columnists and the paucity of blacks and females.
You wrote that the Washington area is “a remarkably diverse region, and that should be better reflected in columnist jobs†and proceeded to list the paper’s columnists according to section, sex, and race. Especially notable was the number of white men in the opinion pages. Out of 20 op-ed writers, 17 are men, three are women, one man was born in India, and two men are black.
With all due respect, the title of your column is somewhat misleading. “Diversity of Opinion†is what the paper should be concerned about, but its chief concern seems to be diversity of skin hues, not of opinion.
This is where I come in.
You wrote:
So how could The Post increase diversity as the staff and space for stories got smaller? It wouldn’t be easy, but here are some thoughts. On the op-ed pages, don’t run all the columnists all the time. Create some space for new voices. In Close to Home, make a point of seeking out more women and minorities. Outlook can also bring in more such voices.
More women and minorities… that’s noble but very predictable. Might I add a third category? Why not add more conservative writers to the roster? If you want diversity of opinion, as your column title indicates, it will require the paper to publish pieces written from a non-liberal worldview, one that differs from the view of the current editorial board and stable of writers.
And the Post can begin with my voice. First, I’m black. BAM! Second, I’m a woman. BOOM! Best of all, I’m a conservative. ZING! By hiring me as an op-ed writer, the good liberal folks at the Post would kill three diversity birds with one proverbial stone. How cool is that?
Although I’m not the kind of blogger who’d apologize for light posting, I feel I ought to warn people who come here every day and expect lots of fresh content.
My blog has grown so much in the past three years because of the time and energy I’ve put into it. That hasn’t left me with much of a social life. My blog has been my baby, my business, and — I hate to say it this way — my life. Although I will continue blogging, I’m at the point where I need to release this blog’s hold on my time. I wish I could be a blogging and writing Wonder Woman like Michelle Malkin (I have yet to figure out how she does it!), but I just don’t seem to have the knack.
I noticed that she and other bloggers tend to mix in short posts with longer ones, but if I can’t write a decent longish essay-type post, I figure, why bother? I blog long, and I’ve never wanted to post five or ten short posts a day like others do. I don’t know. I’m weird that way.
I want to get to a point where this blog supplements my writing rather than my writing supplementing the blog. I tend to write off-blog articles to bring people to my blog, and at this point in my life/career, that’s the wrong focus. I want to be known primarily as a writer with a blog and not a blogger who writes the occasional article.
I’ve slowly let go of my “concern†with rankings. Like many bloggers, I do watch my Site Meter and TTLB position, but much less so than I used to. I owe that to a change of direction. I suppose I’m going through a pre-midlife crisis crisis; I’ll be 40 real soon, and just as I began writing for publication when I turned 35, I need to refocus and get back on track to do what I started out to do: consistent publication.
This blog has been a pleasant and profitable side-track, but it’s time to take risks the way I used to and channel some of this blog-energy into other pursuits. In the pipeline: a book review for Christianity Today, an article for the Christian Research Journal, and a book proposal for a Christian book publisher. Book editors have pursued me, and I foolishly dragged my feet. Why? Fear of success, fear of failure, laziness…There are no guarantees the proposal will sell, but my feet-dragging days are over. God has guided another editor into my path. I think he’s trying to tell me something…
As I take the time to pursue writing assignments and engage more in life off-line, blogging will be somewhat lighter than it already is. In fact, blogging this week will be light. I’m presently in my native South Carolina and will travel to California for Thanksgiving. I have family and friends to see, clients to serve, a column to crank out, and a new diversion to enjoy.
Once again, thank you for reading LBC.
