Nick Southall hates him some Last.fm.
In this excellent blog post, he argues that web-based music protocols, like Last.fm and MySpace, cheapen the experience of listening to a new record by making it so quick and easy and risk-free. When you have to plunk down $10 or $15 for a new album, you’re betting $10 or $15 that it’s going to be good. When you download a record for free, there’s no risk at all. So you can listen to dozens more records than you would if you had to pay for them. But when they come so easily, and when we’re listening to so many, we tend to glaze over each individual record.
While Southall only addresses music protocols, the concept applies to peer-to-peer downloading as well. Downloading a torrent doesn’t cost any more than listening to an album on Last.fm.
The ‘listening experience’ is a familiar topic to most music nerds; CDs have been cheapening that experience for two decades, since they eclipsed the LP as the dominant format. But these web-based music protocols pose a threat to music journalism that never existed in the CD era. See, when you’re paying $15 per album, it makes sense to read at least a few reviews of a record before you buy it, as a sort of safeguard against wasting your money. But who wants to read reviews when you can listen to the album for free, with just a few mouse clicks?
Nerds like us—that’s who. That’s a pretty small demographic.
And if only a handful of listeners are reading the reviews, webzines like Stylus can’t sustain themselves. They can’t compete with the convenience of Last.fm.
But let’s not go too far in villainizing internet music. MP3 blogs can offer us a taste of a new record, but only enough to make us curious—sort of like traditional music journalism, but with music samples at the ready. Those of us who still buy records end up buying more music when we read these blogs.
Also, keep in mind that selling records isn’t the only function of music criticism. Deep and provocative music writing can add new dimensions to the listening experience. It can illuminate parts of songs—lyrics, hooks, song structures, and so forth—that most listeners would otherwise ignore.
Again, MP3 blogs hold an advantage over print publications and even webzines in this area. Instead of just describing a great crescendo, a blogger can post the MP3 of the song in question, so the reader can listen while reading about the writer’s take on it.
I point to Said the Gramophone as the ultimate fulfillment of this capability. Instead of straightforward commentary, the blog’s patriarch Sean Michaels and his cohorts write short stories and scenes and images to accompany the songs they post. Listen to the first song on this post and read his description and I dare you to tell me the song would be just as good without the text.
I might have a few more tears to shed over the death of Stylus, but as long as we have terrific writers like Sean Michaels and, hell, Southall and Ian Mathers and Mike Powell, seeking out great music and writing about it for us, I think music journalism will remain just as healthy as it was in the days of Christgau and Lester Bangs.
