Inspired by music blogs such as Fluxblog and 3hive, it wasn’t too long ago that I set out to create a music blog of my own. It also wasn’t long until I failed completely and then tried my hand at podcasting (an endeavor that proved to be better but short lived). Why did I fail at the music blog scene?
Well it turns out that as Evan Mix put it, music blogging is more than just a bunch of random dudes posting tracks on their blogs.
First a little history:
According to Wikipedia I was correct when I said that Fluxblog was one of the first mp3 blogs around, and it’s still going strong. In a Rolling Stone magazine article they identified Fluxblog as a music-blogging pioneer.
“almost all of the MP3 blogs trace their roots to Fluxblog, a site that set a few standards that continue to give record companies pause about sending cease-and-desist letters.”
Although Fluxblog may have been first that doesn’t mean that it invented the spirit of mp3 blogging. That spirit has been around for a long time, before the Internet was ever even imagined. I myself am not old enough to have lived in a day without the Internet, (although I was around when there wasn’t much to do on it) and in order to identify what this spirit is we must first learn how the Internet functions.
The Internet is a place that doesn’t exist in reality, but where reality is made and exchanged. Plato once described reality as only being real because it is a reflection of something even more real. Now either way you look at it, (the Internet being the reflection or the reflector of/on the real world), the Internet connects us in an ultimate sense of Communitas, and it is this sense of community that runs the Internet and specifically the blog world.
Now if you are old enough to have lived in a world without this fantastic medium, answer this question: How did you hear about music that you had never heard before?
My answer to this question is twofold (and you can dispute me in the comments if I’m wrong) but it basically boiled down to “Either the music was played on the radio (main stream media)” Or “A friend told me about it.” (word of mouth)
Word of mouth is essentially the way music blogs work. As our friends once brought music to us, the music blogs are now filling that role. This isn’t to say that your close friends can’t still direct you to some good tunes, those tunes will just most likely be on a blog somewhere.
Word of mouth is how the good music blogs are separated from the bad, and here’s why.
Too Much Music???
Imagine living a few hundred years ago, before the invention of recording devices. If you were lucky someone you knew had an instrument and could play, or if you were rich you could go see concerts. But it was a real possibility that you could go your entire life without ever having heard a song.
Nowadays we live in a world with too much music. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but it makes it hard to sift through everything we have, and new songs are being made every day. Add this to the fact that the amount of music that we have is easily accessible thanks to the Internet and it is all too easy to get lost in the mix.
A Musicblogger and a Robot walk into a bar. . .
The difference between a website with a list of hyperlinks to different song files by different bands, and a full-fledged music blog is that the first is robotic and cold, while the second has a story to tell behind each song.
Think of it this way,–: how many times have you purchased what was recommended by the “If you liked this, then you’ll enjoy _____” box at the bottom of the page that music stores like iTunes and Amazon have?
And how many times have you listened to a band and then purchased their stuff based off of the recommendation of a real live person?
The fact is that we as human beings prefer to communicate with other people rather than rely on automated responses. A bad music blogger will post a link to a song and leave it at that. A good music blogger will tell you the story behind the song, the way they feel when they listen to it, what it makes them think of, etc.
In the end we really don’t even go to music blogs for the music, but rather for the community. We could get music anywhere else, but we go because we take pride in knowing that someone else likes what we like, that someone else is out there letting us have a glimpse at a piece of themselves and what they enjoy. It goes so much farther than a list of bands on a Facebook page. Good music blogging takes devotion and time.
The Perfect Mix
Community is what makes a musicblog interesting, but what makes a music blog successful?
In order to be successful a music blog must have the perfect mix of art and technicality.
Art covers these criteria:
- Style
- Substance
- Voice
- Opinion
Every music blog has its own personality (some even have many), and that plays a lot into whether or not you will read it on a regular basis,– after all, we usually tend to associate with people who have something in common with us, so if you and a blog don’t click then it doesn’t matter really how good the posted songs are.
On the Technical side:
- Order
- Looks
- Usability
- Readability
A blog could have the most poetic and thoughtful writing you’ve ever seen. The blogger could like every single band you like and agree with every single one of your opinions, but if you can’t access this content due to bad structure and readability then that blog isn’t good.
For example take a look at these three blogs and first consider their style and design, then their overall structure and layout. You’ll quickly realize that though all three share a common goal they are vastly different in terms of the qualities above.
My thoughts on 3hive and My Old Kentucky Blog can be found here. (Motel de Moka is coming soon)
Why I Failed.
I like to think that part of the reason I couldn’t keep my music blog up and running was lack of time (it certainly wasn’t a lack of devotion), but the real reason I ended up stopping was that what I wanted to say was already being said by bloggers better than I. Why would I want to do so much work when people were there doing it for me? From this side of the fence I can sit and enjoy.
Music blogging is a serious business, and it’s not for everyone, but as you can see the spirit is there and there are plenty blogs to choose from. You just have to find the ones that suit you, and if you can’t then the solution is easy, make your own.
Read some Music Blog reviews by me for ListenIn
© Jacob Nicolas Martinez 2007 for LISTEN IN some rights reserved
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