The world of music blogs is a place where individuals go to look for insight into new music. The issue becomes one of sifting through all that is out there, and there is quite a lot! This is a marvelous, rewarding and sometimes frustrating experience.

Blogs as a medium are a wonderful and exponential leap from the old days of the written word alone. Back in the day you might pick up a copy of Rolling Stone to sort though what might tickle your fancy. The reader may be familiar enough with the reviewers taste to trust their judgement. Pretty shaky. The beauty of being able to listen to and in most cases see an artist perform while you assess, proves invaluable and a far more efficient way of finding the music you can love.

However, Music Blogs are changing and doing so much more than providing reviews and a gateway to new music. Greg Sandoval of CNET News describes it this way:

Last month, Stereogum was sold to social-media site Buzznet, while Pitchfork made a splashy foray into music videos that spurred observers to call the site the “new MTV.” Music blogs are organizing concerts, being quoted on television, and releasing independent albums–just like a record label. The changes have spurred some to declare there is no limit to how far the blogs can go. Others fear they might lose their edge if they go corporate.

“With success come changes,” said Yancey Strickler, eMusic’s editorial director and a longtime observer of the music blogosphere. “The way these things normally go is you’ll start to generate a lot of attention, and it gets harder to just keep writing a music blog. It can become more of a managerial role and less about curation and finding interesting ways to discover music.”

Hold on here! What - the suits are trying to gain control again? Look at the fantastic job they did with.. FM radio…that sad wasteland of the riskless, drab and the unimaginative. With that as a warning sign, what will  the future look like? Here’s more from the cnet article:

Gerd Leonhard, the tech sector’s self-described media futurist, argues that the top music blogs will use their popularity and influence to build empires.

“The leading music blogs will become what used to be called record labels,” Leonhard wrote in a blog last month. “The people running them will be those sharp, tuned-in, hyper-networked and resourceful BlogJs formerly known as bloggers…these disruptors, thought leaders, and influencers will be our future broadcasters.”

Change is inevitable. Disrupters, thought leaders and influencers, what happened to these folks when FM Radio started to mature - where did they go? My friends, let’s keep a close eye on this! So our music doesn’t slip again from the audiences control. Hands up in solidarity - power to the crowd of listeners! 

Tony Momo - Meet the new boss, same as the previous AS*HOL# that screwed it all up!

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