The Tofu Hut: Formally at least this is the best MP3 blog I’ve seen – conversational tone, good readable design, lots of info and links on each track. Currently up are some very tasty-looking African tunes, soul rarities and a bit of bluegrass. Like all MP3 blogs they get removed after a limited period.
There’s quite the little network of these things springing up now, and I seem to have caught the wave just as it’s swelling – PopNose is linked by a fair few of them and has become (in 3 weeks or so) the second most popular page on the site, even without a front-page link. Not surprising really, I’m giving away free stuff after all. (Not that it’s mine to give away, you might say, but I don’t feel too bad about that – at 64 kbps mono the MP3s are unburnable on some programs and are of a low enough quality to really actually be for the fabled ‘evaluation purposes’.)
Plus it’s very refreshing and entertaining doing it – like making a mix CD but without the pressure to make it flow, you can just shove any old thing up and as long as you give fair warning nobody’s worse off. And it takes the (self-imposed) pressure to theorise/think/write off too, which is just what I need at the moment.
My only concern is the potential audience numbers – Fluxblog (the daddy!) is getting some ridiculous level of traffic, which might be bandwidth-crushing if replicated on the Nose. And as more new MP3 blogs start up, more people discover them, use their links lists and the virtuous circle continues to expand. Like any ‘web phenomenon’ it’s likely to be written about, too, but this time the thinkpiece in the Guardian / Voice / Whatever is to be feared, since what will happen is that Matt Perpetua will get a slap on the wrist and a nice A & R job offer and the rest of us will vanish overnight! Enjoy it while it lasts, is I suppose what I’m saying.
(Oh and one more thing – PopNose has VOTING now on tracks, an idea we flagrantly stole from the GABBA boyz, who were (what did I tell you?) mentioned in an aside in this month’s Observer Music Monthly!)