Plug
: Buy the album from (former blogger) Ken Layne here.
: Ken corrects me in the comments. I’m just complaining that he’s not doing all the same kind of wonderful posts he used to do. I’m wheedling. I’m whining. I’m cajoling.
3 responses to “Plug”
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Thanks Jeff!
Former journalist, maybe, but I post blog items many times a week!
There is probably a story somewhere for someone to write about music blogging, whether it’s done by musicians or about music. My pal Steve Poltz recently switched his Official Site to a Moveable Type blog, and people like Beck have been doing blog-ish updates for a while now. The best blog-run online music magazine is Glorious Noise, which runs off MT & has a crazy comments section as interesting as the features / interviews, and everybody loves critic / deejay Jack Sparks’ angry blog about how his beloved alt-country music lives in the shadows of commercial radio. Texas bloggers can’t help but write about that state’s All Important Music, like Kevin Whited & Scott Chaffin.
And anybody who read my sites over the past seven or eight years knows I’ve always been a helluva lot more interested in Johnny Cash, punk rock & making records than the presidential primaries or whatever. (Of course, I had to pay attention to the politics when that was how I made a living. Luckily, I changed careers! Again.)
There are hundreds of such sites out there. This all alt-country group blog has been going for a year now, Rockzilla is a really well-written virtual rock / roots magazine, my pal Kate Sullivan (who writes about the rock for all sorts of mags, such as Spin) has an all-rawk blog loved by many, Reason’s Jesse Walker uses much of his personal blog space writing about music & concerts, etc. etc.
I’ve been meaning to push Henry Copeland to go after these sites. There’s a great opportunity for BlogAds here, and the cheap ads / passionate readers thing is especially suited to the independent / cult-audience music fanatics and the small labels that serve ’em.
As the major-label record industry falls apart due to greed, crappy music and a sad focus on teenagers who could give a shit about buying the disposable “hits” of the day, independent labels are thriving by selling real music to the people who still enjoy buying CDs: adults. The over-25 crowd doesn’t do much file-sharing. And grown-ups who love a certain kind of music tend to understand the economics of making music, and want to reward those who make good stuff. How else do you explain the O Brother Where Art Thou, or the million albums sold by 50+ year old Lucinda Williams, even though she’s not played on commercial radio?
(I believe Welch is doing a story on the boomlet of glossy magazines dedicated to “americana” music. Three started this year: Harp, Paste & Tracks. They’re doing great & you see them displayed prominently at Borders & Barnes & Noble — the biggest retailers for this sort of music.) -
And it could have been worse, Ken. Jeff could have referred to you as the “alleged” blogger. Much worse than “former” blogger.
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Or “The Blogger Formerly Known as Ken Layne”
