Ok, so I’ve been thinking about what to post next, I really regretted not doing a “best of” 2008 and stuff, I did make a list and will probably post it soon (nothing like being half a year late), but feel I need to get this off of my chest first..
Let’s see, first things first…why haven’t I posted in forever? Well, truthfully, this blog started feeling like more of a “job” than anything, it was losing its charm and appeal. I would struggle to find that balance of music I sincerely liked/loved, write something decent and lastly, get permission from the band/label to post the music. When we first started the blog, we weren’t getting permission all of the time. This was either because a million other blogs were posting the songs too or we were just taking the risk of getting into trouble over music we loved. This happened to Lauren at first, then I received a letter from Arr Eye Aye Aye (they’re like Beetlejuice, if I say their name, they’ll appear). That mess just wasn’t fun…I have a family, a career and don’t really have money to pay silly fines or do jail time, so I started a process that turned out to be a lot of work, most of the time unfulfilling or not working out in my favor (thus, the artist losing publicity).
Some bands had the “power” to grant me permission, sometimes I had to court the PR or management of the label, none of which were quick processes (although some bands truly were quick and “doing it for the kids” (Girls, No Age, Sleep Party People, etc., thanks, dudes). Otherwise, days/weeks would pass, crazy requests would be asked (if we say yes, then you owe us a positive review from another band on our label, 30 second sample, no direct links, etc., etc.). This got old fast. Other blogs seemed to post the same songs no problem and/or with seemingly no favors attached (I was connected with a few blog authors and all said they just post up and take the risk of a C&D).
Next was the increasingly frustrating work of “finding” new/good music. I didn’t want to be Johnny-come-lately and post what everyone else had found 2 weeks ago, but I often found my best gems from other music blogs. I tried to give credit when it was due, but had a major problem with one blog in particular telling me they had exclusivity to post the band’s music and to take mine down. I obliged twice, then told them where to stick it from then on since I was getting permission to do what I please from the band members themselves. Doesn’t sound that bad on the surface, but I was downloading about 300 songs a week to sift through and find something that not only I liked, but something I thought the readers would like too. If the average song is 2.5 minutes (and some songs I could tell right away were terrible, so I maybe gave them a full minute), but some rough estimates put the time spent “sifting” at around 750 minutes a week, that’s 12.5 hours or about 2 hours a day on my work days (and most Sundays). I know what you’re thinking, boohoo, you have to listen to music, but I never made a penny and I was getting so burnt on only finding 4-5 good songs a week out of hundreds…
The last straw I think was the pressure I would get from labels/PR dept.s to review the discs they would send me. Now it was fun to get free music in the mail, but I quickly learned that there is an obvious reason they’re sending me free music. Most of it was crap and I just couldn’t bring myself to lie or like Jason did a few times, tell the absolute truth 
So I got burnt out big time, jaded like you wouldn’t believe and dreaded every time I knew I had to write something…so I just stopped. Didn’t visit the site or ANY music blog for that matter. I had amassed enough great music over the years of visiting music blogs and writing for this one to last me for a long time, so I didn’t have that desire to seek new music out.
Until now.
I loaded up the 200+ music blogs I’ve come to know/love/link exchange and you know what? There’s hardly anything great out there even after all this time! And even worse, they’re reposting stuff (or just remixes) of the great songs of 2007/2008! I think the indie/twee/alternative music scene is just extremely stale and uninspired right now, so I’m waiting until something groundbreaking, original and most of all, sincere comes out before I can start posting music again.
If you know of anything, please let me know. Otherwise, stay tuned for a “Best of 2008″ post finally…
PS – I was thinking of moving this blog to Tumblr, I love their interface, it’s super easy to post music files (no 3rd party host involved), what do you guys think, any opinion on that?
