I’m a music blogger. Somehow I’ve been able to spent the last three years successfully writing about electronic music I love at electronic rumors and people have listened. By some fluke I appear to be actually getting away with running a music website that has a little bit of respect. Weird, I know!
So I get sent a lot of music, on average I’ll receive 70-100 emails a day with music clamouring for my attention, and I listen to them all (as long as the email doesn’t contain the words ‘Folk’ or ‘Alternative Rock’) and write about those that grab me.
Recently, in the last year or so, I’ve noticed a trend in the way music is presented promotionally, particularly amongst PR companies.
For some reason, the music industry appears to think it is the movie industry.
I’m talking about ‘teasers’, ‘promo clips’ or ‘trailers’ for songs. Which as a...er…I’m not going to say journalist…um…critic? OK. Which, as a critic I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with.
Songs aren’t stories, there’s no spoilers, there’s no harm in me knowing what happens in the end of a song. I’m sure the music PR industry thinks the trailer model can generate excitement for a release, in the same way it works in the film world, but they are totally different mediums. Trailers work for movies because they are a narrative. A film trailer can get you intrigued as to where the elements of plot you have been shown are going to go, and hence make you want to see the film. But a song isn’t a yarn that you have to know the conclusion of, it’s a different beast altogether.
Personally, if I hear a 30 second clip of a song I like it doesn’t make me want to buy the song, it just makes me want to hear all the song (which then makes me want to buy it, rendering the 30 second clip redundant), I don’t think I would buy a song (unless it was from an artist I trusted) based on a 30 second clip, for all I know the rest of it is shit. But that’s me talking as a consumer, from a consumer point of view I can accept that a clip of a track might be a way to hook people in, I think it’s a poor way, but if you want to do it I suppose I see the point.
From a blogger’s point of view, however, I don’t see the point whatsoever. I would never post a clip or teaser on electronic rumors. It’s hard to define what a music blog is, everyone has different opinions. I definitely don’t see myself as a journalist, or even a reviewer, more an ‘enthuser’. The closest other media job I relate what I do to is a radio DJ, only in written form. I choose the tracks I like and present them with some info on the band and my opinion of the track, just like a radio show, only more wordy and with less crank calls. So, just as you wouldn’t get a radio show playing a 30 second clip of a track, I wouldn’t ‘play’ a 30 second clip of a track on my blog. My blog’s purpose is to introduce new songs to people who might now otherwise hear them. New songs. Not new snippets. It's the same for videos. Got a trailer for your new music video? No thanks, if it’s any good I will post about it when the whole thing comes out, thanks.
It’s when we receive trailers, clips, snippets or teasers for music from PR companies that blogs stop feeling like trusted, valued media partners and start feeling like a source of free advertising. It’s a little insulting.
There’s only one thing worse than a short clip of a song or video. A short clip of a song or video from a brand new artist. Honestly, this is where music marketing really disappears up it’s own arse. Question; am I supposed to get excited (and subsequently try to get my readers excited) about thirty seconds from an artist I have never heard of and who has never released anything? It’s not going to happen! Let me hear a whole song, if I like it I will get excited more than you can possible imagine, but I’m not such a sheep that I will-enthuse just on your say-so.
Let me just point out, I’m not saying I have to give away your music for free. I call electronic rumors a ‘music blog’, not an ‘MP3 blog’. MP3s do help draw in the readers, but I couldn’t give a toss if I am giving away a 320kbps MP3, a 128kbps MP3 or just presenting a non-downloadable steam of a song, or even a music video. As long as my readers can listen to the track, the whole track, that’s all that matters.
To ask me to devote a whole post to a song I have heard less than two minutes of is kinda’ arrogant and presumptuous.
Still, thankfully it’s only a small number of labels and PR companies that do this, most labels and PR companies are awesome with an amazing grasp of digital promotion and fun to work with.
Digital promotion of music seems like its been around forever, but really it’s still a new frontier and we are all still learning what works and what doesn’t.
I suppose it’s all trial and error really. Maybe they have reason to think teasers work. I’ve never seen it working really, I rarely see blogs post clips, but maybe it works for some.
It’s just not the way I consume, or talk about on electronic rumors, new music.
Maybe it’s just me?
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