Fact and Opinion: Facets of the Music Industry

Recently, I have been scouring the Internet for interesting and reputable sites I may reference or study in order to write effectively about the modernization of the music industry. In this process, I came across commentary coming from magazine sources, college professors, people in the industry, artists, music organizations, and more. Whatever the source, however, they were presented in one of three ways, either as a blog, as news articles, or as a combination of both. For the sake of this post, I will define a blog as attempting to present some sort of opinion along with the facts, while a news article attempts to stay objective on the matter at hand. Considering the criteria offered from both the Webby Awards, and the IMSA about what constitutes a good post, I critiqued 20 different sources of music industry- related information online. The aspects taken into account were: content, structure, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and the overall experience. All of the sites have been added to my linkroll, but I will also critique each of them on Amateur Arbitration. Each has aspects of good and bad, and, for the most part, each of them attempts to serve a slightly unique purpose.

In the way of the blogs, Ad-Supported Music Central offers an interesting look at the direction that the industry is heading to. The content in this blog is usually timely, and well reported, however it is not posted frequently enough to make it a staple of music blogs. It is visually appealing, almost to the point of being gaudy. Coolfer (at right) is another blog that deals with very current issues, and does so in a quite concise and informed way. They also do a great job creating an interactivity with their many links. Visually simple, Coolfer is a professional and respectable blog. Not so professional, and possibly more interesting because of it, are blogs Hypebot and Idolator. Both of these blogs comment on very current issues in an irreverent, yet informative way. While Idolator is more visually pleasing, Hypebot is far more functional, serving to link to other related stories and comments. Wired Music comments on some very unique issues. Though it is not particularly interactive or structured in a unique way, Wired does a great job of finding interesting content. The blogs with the best content, however, are all part of the same ring. Future of Music, Music Business and Trend-Mongering, and Music Publishing and Songwriting, are all blogs written by faculty at Berklee College of Music. It appears to be part of their job description, as nearly every faculty member has their own blog. These three in particular are especially pertinent to this blog. The frequent posts prove to be cutting edge in content, and are as well informed, and written as could be expected from college professors in the field. While not visually stimulating, these blogs do a great job of providing links to each other, as well as defining their purpose.

Music industry news sites run the gamut of the criteria as well. Sites like The Daily Chord, Music Industry News Network, and Digital Music News deliver great stories from all aspects of the music industry, as well as networking, or personal ads. Digital Music News even has a login, and a job posting board. However all three of these sites are lacking in structure and visual design. They feel like they are simply a page filled with links and nothing more. This does not make the reader want to explore. On the opposite end of the spectrum are sites like RIAA and Billboard.biz. Their designs are very streamlined, professional, and interesting. They give dependable stories, however they are very geared towards the mainstream, and tend to be a beat behind on the latest issues. Music Radar is a very well rounded news site regarding the latest in music equipment. It is aesthetically pleasing, as well as easy to navigate although a bit crowded. Although Music Radar is a very well-done site, it's niche is too small to compete with sites like Pitchfork (at left), Pollstar, and Last.fm. Pollstar is geared towards the live music aspect of the industry, and Last.fm is geared heavily towards the interactive music community, while Pitchfork chronicles the recording aspect of the industry. Based on their quality content, functionality, visual design and great structure, these sites offer a great overall experience, which is why they are each the leader in their niche.

A few sites offer both opinion and fact, for instance Drowned in Sound mixes industry news with music commentary in a visually appealing way. What Drowned in Sound lacks is an aspect of interaction with the reader. Stereogum also combines the blog aspect with the news aspect, and is structured remarkably well, with different sections of the site easily accessible. The site promotes interaction by giving away and streaming mp3s, but the site lacks relevant or particularly engaging news content. The last site that attempts to do both is Music News Net. It provides news, and reviews, though the news seems more to be a sort of celebrity gossip. It's simple and easy to navigate, though Music News Net, like all the sites that try to combine the fact and opinion don't seem to have a clearly defined function or purpose.

It's important to analyze as many sites as possible, as they are a testament to the music industry. All of the 20 sites in the linkroll help to show me what aspects of the industry people find appealing, as well as gave me a window into the status of the industry and it's issues as a whole.