Last week I had some time to sit around and ponder a few things about not only my music blog, but music blogging in general. If you are an avid reader of the site or a random glancer (not a word, but I'm using it), you might of noticed my post count went down big time. Well, on top of being sick and not feeling like sitting at the computer, I was wondering the actual value I was bringing to readers. I guess I was feeling sort of like a robot just posting a song and feeling like it was a waste. Yet as I continued to think about my experiences as a music blogger and some of the cool shit I was sent or discovered, it made me realize not only the value of my blog, but the importance of music blogging in 2013 and that it indeed still matters.
When I began my music endeavors via Oh So Fresh Music in 2010, music blogging was probably reaching a new level and I didn't even realize how many were truly out there. I thought I had this brilliant idea that maybe a handful were doing -- boy was I completely fucking wrong. As I continued over the last 2.5 years, music blogging kept exponentially growing, making me wonder if this mass amount of new bloggers would kill the vibe. (Blogger, don't kill my vibe!). I mean all of us were the purveyors of new music and now there are a million of us, what the fuck. Yet, this influx hasn't really hindered anything, and to me music blogging is just as important as it was when I started.
I think one of the easiest ways to tell why music blogging still matters is the fact that so many new ones are popping up on a weekly basis. If no one gave two shits about music blogs, people would not be willing to devote much time and energy starting one and sharing music. I mean it's true, some people might still start one to just share music they like and have friends see it, but if you take account of how many are out there, it has to be important in some way. Hell let's take a look at Hype Machine (Still waiting to be accepted ya jerks, I kid I kid) they have over 880 blogs listed, and they do not even accept probably half of the ones out there. Like that is ridiculous.
Yet, with all those many might argue that having so many blogs is a negative aspect and is killing the whole market. At first, I was tending to agree but the more I think about it, I find it to be quite the opposite. Before music blogs we consumed most of our music knowledge from major sites or magazines that had their own webpages, which is great and all but so much music could easily be missed. Since the Internet has become such valuable resource for music and with the vast amount of blogs, it is much easier to discover music that might have previously gone virtually unnoticed. That huge number of music bloggers just means more coverage, and sure there will be overlap between blogs, but that only helps push some popular stuff further on people's radars.On top of that I have seen many artists/bands become something because of popular bloggers or helped get them a fan base, which then led to record deals or huge tours that sold out.
I also find that labels, artists, bands, and PR people still find a huge value in music bloggers. Since 2010 I have continued to see brand new songs from growing bands and some who have made it pretty big, premiere songs on blogs. No longer is a site like Spin or Paste become the only way to find brand new never before heard songs, as popular bloggers have become the go to source. I think if music blogs didn't matter as much, you wouldn't be seeing PR people or bands offering/looking to be premiered via a blogger.
The times have certainly changed in the last few years and while there is an influx of music bloggers out there, we are indeed STILL relevant in 2013 and so far I do not see that slowing down. What do you guys think?
