“ But even Lester, who is keen on the idea of getting paid £5 each for the 30 or so new bands he listens to each day, reluctantly has to concede that the site looks “incredibly tacky”. In response to complaints from journalists, the list of publications has replaced a list of individuals. As James Sherry, a rock PR, puts it, having a price next to your name is “really not a good look”. If bands are in desperate need of good PR, perhaps freelance journalists need it even more.”
Website pays music journalists to review bands | Media | The Guardian
Very telling article, but perhaps an even more important part is a comment by the Guardian’s film and music editor:
However, budgets are tight here and I am no longer able to use freelance album reviewers (all our reviewers are either on staff, or have contracts to write for the Guardian). That means I have lost some specialist knowledge - where once I would commission Alex Macpherson to review UK urban and R&B, or Angus Batey to review hip-hop, those options are no longer open to me.
One of the greatest losses to modern journalism is the death of the specialized journalist, now confined to infinite Blogspot fan blogs (in the case of music journalists) or the unemployment office in the rest of the business.
As for the actual subject of the article, this is not the least bit shocking for someone with any experience in the music business. Hype begets hype, and every band is hoping that by some miracle the right influential journo will fall in love with their basement-recorded, CDR masterpiece. But realistically, there’s no chance for that to happen anymore, due to the sheer volume of music being produced every second.
So I don’t blame bands who are turning to this method, as shady as it seems. I do, however, blame the industry for not having a better filtering process in place.
