what? that’s even worse!

Also I can’t believe there is an indie band called Black Kids. ffs people.

The reasons you give are sound but in other ways it’s still never been easier to do many of the things desired or required of a band. cheaper ‘instruments’ (hardware and software at least), cheaper travel in certain respects and obv. the internet as shop window (or in mp3 blogs cases, shop assistants?).

But yeah those things becoming easier increases quantity of and competition among new bands, replacing the old problems with new ones chiefly how to actually stand out in the first place as well as maintain audience interest…in order to make a living. i figure that’s where the resignation and reluctance for artists will kick in now. But still not enough artists making the net work for them in as many ways as they could. Tom’s tips are very good but not extensive of course.

the ‘British-ization’ point is interesting but, and I know what it means in this context but still, the ironing is that seemingly 95% of the influential mp3 blogs are made in the USA. There’s so much Europhilia on many of these that it probably doesn’t matter but I’d still like more popular and prominent mp3 blogs based in the UK. i’m a little out of the loop tho ala byebyepride.

Sorry, doesn’t have much to do with Jess’s piece. Since I gave up reading most music blogs I don’t really recognise the situation he’s getting upset about.

“But the principles of audience engagement and hard work – the virtual equivalent of doing endless Transit Van tours – could take the sting off the backlash and let bands get the opportunity to shamble vaguely in the direction of ‘good’ and ‘money’.”

This is the sticking point – I really don’t think a lot of bands can be faffed with the ‘hard work’ part. If you can’t afford a manager, tourbus driver, tour manager, PR person, website designer etc then you have to do it yourself (or find some mug who will do a sh1tty job reasonably well for free). The whole business is absolutely exhausting: at least the equivalent of 2 full time jobs if you really want to get anywhere. I only managed thanks to my day job having VERY flexible hours & an understanding boss, a good credit history and vast quantities of booze and fags.

I hope that everyone who wants to be a rock star knows by now that it is only lucrative enough to give up your day job if you a) ’sell out’ b) are bogglingly successful to the tune of selling at least a million albums. Neither fit in with ‘indie’ ideals very often :(

i REALLY REALLY don’t think this is the case — or at least, it isn’t the case for a signficant sector of the readership, who want very much to belong to the “community of the in-the-know”, which means knowing about the WRITERS and what’s been written (and actually you DON’T need to know that much about the music, or indeed anything at all!) (i mean the writers probably do, bcz there’s a competitive pressure on being one, and BIG GIANT RECORD COLLECTIONS is a factor in the competition, but the readers don’t)

magazines and newspapers and blogs all conjure up imagined communities — the sense a reader has of being part of a like-minded, far-sighted, correct-tasting group — but the fit of those groups onto the followers of this or that music act or music movement is often very shaky indeed (but since information on the fitness of the fit comes entirely through the magazine or blog or whatever, the fact of the unfitness of the fit is generally distorted to the point of uselessness)