MP3 Blogging MP3’s. Does It Matter? Is It Stealing?
posted by on September 10 at 12:00 PM
Last week, one of the best new electronic music blogs out there committed what one music blogger called “blog hari-kari”. Birth School Work Death basically shut himself down after getting some slack from various places about posting MP3s on his blog. (The good news is he’s recently announced he’s going to reformulate and go back up at the end of the year.)
I have always viewed his blog as an essential stop on my trip to experiencing new music. He often has stuff posted that I wouldn’t hear any other way, or from any other blog. So it came as quite a shock when he just decided to shut down.
This argument has been picking up steam lately, mostly due to a, now weeks old, debate on the british DJ Ewan Pearson’s blog about whether music blogs should be posting MP3s at all.
The argument is also of personal interest to me, as I write and operate my own blog, T.M.L. I’d like to think that I’m a little different, in that I post mostly out-of-print music, which would only be available on hard to find used medium in the first place. I tend to not post new stuff, and I have never posted a whole album, especially one which is commercially available.
But am I just parsing an argument to fit my own needs? I dunno. That’s just the way I’ve chosen to roll for now.
I’d like to know what readers here think of the argument. So I’ve set up a little poll for you to take. Just a couple of quick questions.
I know they’re pretty simplistic questions, but I just want to get an idea of how other people view music blogs with MP3’s for download.
Feel free to add comments on what you think more appropriate questions might be, and your thought on MP3 blogs in general.
Remember: MP3 blog is different than P2P, and I’ve tried to make the questions only about MP3 blogs. Not P2P sites.
MP3 blogs = the new radio. Remember taping songs off the radio? Same deal. Low bit rate as the new radio static. And given the ever-increasing consolidation and homogenization of actual radio, some labels/artists should be glad as hell for the MP3 blogs.
Im on the same page as Eric...
For me, mp3 blogs are just that... the new radio. I have discoverd so much great music I would not find otherwise. 99.9% of what i get is old out of print stuff too that I would buy If i could but good luck finding most of it on a worn old 12" let alone CD/iTunes/etc...
There's a blog or two I follow pretty religiously that hosts mp3s. But they generally deal with rarities, the mp3s are burns of the blogger's 45s, and when I like what I hear, I begin the hunt for the 45 myself. Good for record shops, but that about it.
What I'm trying to say is: yes, I find a ton of great tracks and artist I've never heard before on blogs, but there's not a chance the artist is going to see any money from it no matter what the medium that got the track to my ears.
Probably not exactly what you're asking about, thought I'd share my experience though.
Yeah, gotta agree with the general consensus of the comments. I don't download much that's new music. I check out the music blogs that discuss and post rarities (funk/soul/disco/etc.) that will never see a CD release. If more of these things were available commercially, I'd buy them. But when the marketplace is trying to forcefeed me "Slutty Pop Singer with Minimal Singing Talent #37" or "Crappy Hybrid Punk/Grungey/Rock Clone #29" and ignoring their back catalogs full of interesting music which would cost little to release on CD, I'll stick to the only venues to find the music that interests me.
“blog hari-kari”? Now I like that!! Hehehe
#4 - totally agree, and it's precisely why I'm trolling people's blogs for new discoveries, rather than the major music magazines. As far as the labels go, they should just look at it like I'm going through their trash.
i think most people use mp3 blogs so that they don't have to buy music but a few buy them. i get the impression that most people think that they shouldn't have to pay for music unless it's live. but who knows, maybe my friends and acquaintences are all cheap skates?
mp3 blogs can be a cool idea, but it has to be done responsibly.
i liked when douglas wolk's blog used to post weird OOP indie 7-inches from the 80s and early 90s.
i don't like it so much when mp3 blogs start posting zip files of entire albums in advance of the release date, as some are starting to do.
He got 'slack'? I think you mean he got 'flak'.
yeah this is a very interesting topic - check the debate I got started over at DJ History for more and lots of very well made points...
http://195.238.232.184/~djhistory/forum/showthread.php?t=27431
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