Decibel writer Christopher R Weingarten at 140 Characters Conference
Decibel writer Christopher R. Weingarten says the printed music review is dead in the internet age. In an extremely interesting speech given at the 140 Characters Conference in New York, Weingarten, a freelance music writer for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Revolver and The Village Voice, states that with Twitter and blogs the medium of printed reviews are unnecessary. He believes as people can either read reviews as soon as the record company shifts the promo CD, or better yet download the album itself, people have no need for printed reviews. He says, “You don’t need a critic to tell you if something’s good. You can listen to it.” (Watch the video above)
With online music media maturing at the rate it is, and reviews often being one reason why someone buys a magazine, print music media disappearing or shrinking to the point of evaporation could be a real scenario.
However, the music magazine – metal publications like Metal Hammer, Decibel, Terrorizer, Revolver, Kerrang and Rock Sound included – will stay alive and prosper deep into the future and there are many reasons why.
Yes it’s conceivable that printed reviews might become outdated and obsolete by the time they hit the streets and thus affect magazine sales, but the same doesn’t hold true for interviews. An interview is one thing that can be locked inside a magazine until print and is probably the leading reason for people buying a magazine. Granted bands often give very similar interviews during one single promotional cycle (whether that’s fault of journalist or artist is up for grabs) so why buy the printed rehash if you can read it online for free? Because if a magazine can get a juicy enough pull quote to splash over a cover there’s no reason why a fan wouldn’t want to read what their favourite band says in Metal Hammer or Decibel above the blog. Furthermore it’s conceivable that if online reviews and media were to eat into physical sales magazines would adapt and take a new approach to their content in order to compete. It could become the norm to lock down completely exclusive interviews by arrangement with record companies then hype their catch, probably via the internet ironically, and whip up a frenzy of interest that translates into magazine buys.
This same ‘death of print’ argument could have been used for music news when the internet arrived. During the eighties, nineties and even prior, a magazine like Kerrang was the only news outlet available to metal heads and it was a similar story across plenty of genres. Today, despite sites like Blabbermouth reporting any piece of metal news as it happens – making magazine news pointless – people still read those pages and publications still devote space to it. Why would reviews have a different effect?
Weingarten himself makes a final stand for the printed review over so-called ‘Twit-ic’ opinion. He says that people need to know the ‘why’ and reasoning behind an opinion not just the opinion itself. It’s this opinion and ability to analyse, argues Weingarten, that holds that value for the print critic. That’s exactly correct. While anyone can have an opinion, very few can actually translate that into a balanced, logical argument.
It’s very hard to see the printed music review bowing out to its electronic counterpart. Not only do people need the why, but this entire notion of destruction is supported completely by the perception that it’s the majority of music fans are those that trawl blogs, Twitter and online media looking for reviews and downloading any album of interest. That’s simply not true. It’s very much the minority that are ingrained in the practice of maniacally absorbing online music media like blogs and so forth with such vigour that they see purchasing a magazine as pointless. The threat simply doesn’t exist at the proposed level.
Music and music fans will always want real reviewers. Yes things are changing and the ‘need’ for reviews isn’t quite as universal as it was in the past, but book critics aren’t packing up because people can go into the book store or library and read what it is reviewers are declaring their opinions on. While it would be naive and short sighted to declare that print will be entirely unaffected by online media, the idea that it could trigger a collapse is equally improvident. There could indeed be a knock on effect, and Weingarten has sparked interesting conversation on something largely untouched, but the careers of critics and magazine editors seem safe for some time.
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Print Music Media To Be Usurped By Twitter And The Blogosphere?
Decibel writer Christopher R Weingarten at 140 Characters Conference
Decibel writer Christopher R. Weingarten says the printed music review is dead in the internet age. In an extremely interesting speech given at the 140 Characters Conference in New York, Weingarten, a freelance music writer for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Revolver and The Village Voice, states that with Twitter and blogs the medium of printed reviews are unnecessary. He believes as people can either read reviews as soon as the record company shifts the promo CD, or better yet download the album itself, people have no need for printed reviews. He says, “You don’t need a critic to tell you if something’s good. You can listen to it.” (Watch the video above)
With online music media maturing at the rate it is, and reviews often being one reason why someone buys a magazine, print music media disappearing or shrinking to the point of evaporation could be a real scenario.
However, the music magazine – metal publications like Metal Hammer, Decibel, Terrorizer, Revolver, Kerrang and Rock Sound included – will stay alive and prosper deep into the future and there are many reasons why.
Yes it’s conceivable that printed reviews might become outdated and obsolete by the time they hit the streets and thus affect magazine sales, but the same doesn’t hold true for interviews. An interview is one thing that can be locked inside a magazine until print and is probably the leading reason for people buying a magazine. Granted bands often give very similar interviews during one single promotional cycle (whether that’s fault of journalist or artist is up for grabs) so why buy the printed rehash if you can read it online for free? Because if a magazine can get a juicy enough pull quote to splash over a cover there’s no reason why a fan wouldn’t want to read what their favourite band says in Metal Hammer or Decibel above the blog. Furthermore it’s conceivable that if online reviews and media were to eat into physical sales magazines would adapt and take a new approach to their content in order to compete. It could become the norm to lock down completely exclusive interviews by arrangement with record companies then hype their catch, probably via the internet ironically, and whip up a frenzy of interest that translates into magazine buys.
This same ‘death of print’ argument could have been used for music news when the internet arrived. During the eighties, nineties and even prior, a magazine like Kerrang was the only news outlet available to metal heads and it was a similar story across plenty of genres. Today, despite sites like Blabbermouth reporting any piece of metal news as it happens – making magazine news pointless – people still read those pages and publications still devote space to it. Why would reviews have a different effect?
Weingarten himself makes a final stand for the printed review over so-called ‘Twit-ic’ opinion. He says that people need to know the ‘why’ and reasoning behind an opinion not just the opinion itself. It’s this opinion and ability to analyse, argues Weingarten, that holds that value for the print critic. That’s exactly correct. While anyone can have an opinion, very few can actually translate that into a balanced, logical argument.
It’s very hard to see the printed music review bowing out to its electronic counterpart. Not only do people need the why, but this entire notion of destruction is supported completely by the perception that it’s the majority of music fans are those that trawl blogs, Twitter and online media looking for reviews and downloading any album of interest. That’s simply not true. It’s very much the minority that are ingrained in the practice of maniacally absorbing online music media like blogs and so forth with such vigour that they see purchasing a magazine as pointless. The threat simply doesn’t exist at the proposed level.
Music and music fans will always want real reviewers. Yes things are changing and the ‘need’ for reviews isn’t quite as universal as it was in the past, but book critics aren’t packing up because people can go into the book store or library and read what it is reviewers are declaring their opinions on. While it would be naive and short sighted to declare that print will be entirely unaffected by online media, the idea that it could trigger a collapse is equally improvident. There could indeed be a knock on effect, and Weingarten has sparked interesting conversation on something largely untouched, but the careers of critics and magazine editors seem safe for some time.
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