News: Music Blog Survey

This questionnaire came thru the mail and I find it interesting, so if you’re not busy maybe you could take a couple minutes and fill it out. Try our podcast if you need some background music.

“Help policy makers, record company executives, artists and promoters alike better understand the new phenomenon of music blogging by filling out this short questionnaire. By answering these questions you are helping to define a very important aspect of the current music industry and we appreciate your help.

The results will be used alongside Hitwise data from over 2,500 blogs to give us the first large-scale study into a specific area of blogging. We believe this will be an exciting and interesting study that will help us to better understand the music blogshpere and its impact on the music industry. “

TAKE THE SURVEY

While you’re at it, send any suggestions or questions you might have for this site my way. It’s summer time and the blogging is easy but I have every intention of continuing and improving THE RISING STORM.

Big thanks to the readers out there, as always.
-B


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15 Comments.

  • ib

    Hmmm. Interesting reading, Brendan. I’m going to take some time to think of the implications regarding this survey ; go for a spin around the block and come back in a short while to fill-in the survey. It seems, on the surface of it, a useful platform to justify the blogging community’s support of artists to the record industry (do they still call it that ?), but I still have some minor reservations.

  • ib

    Okay, I confess I’m a bit disturbed that nobody else has seen fit to comment here. Like Brendan would appear to concede – excuse me, B, if I got that bit wrong – the blogging community is increasingly under pressure in putting up files for evaluation ; we’re not talking wholesale piracy through putting up entire albums whether out of print or not here, the issue is in promoting artists by featuring selected tracks and, in many instances, providing links to commercial stockists as per my site; “The Rising Storm”; and a whole host of others.

    If the survival of sites like ours is dependent on merely having music industry approved material foisted on us, the gig is up. So far as I am concerned, it is through the provision of out of print or poorly distributed material on blogs which has led directly to users of the web having an impact on what is picked up and made commercially available. If enough of a demand is demonstrated – as I believe it has – then distributors can be sure of making profit. That means increased cash flow to artists who have suffered in the past from their material being made unavailable, and – of course – revenue for the industry.

    If material is purchased on the back of direct links to commercial outlets or otherwise, then surely that is justification enough to stymie litigative threat.

    In my case, I was visited by the “Web Sheriff” – a UK based body safeguarding copyright material – just last week and politely advised to remove all links to a specific file. I was quite happy to comply with said request, as my site’s disclaimer proclaims, and removed the link in question immediately. This in itself seemed to me quite reasonable and courteous, if not wholly desirable in that the post under censure provided a direct link to Amazon to purchase the newly remastered product and given the track in question was over forty years old.

    I would far rather be approached in this manner where an issue has arisen, than come under unwarranted attack by an unnecessary steamrolling threat, as has seen to be threatened elsewhere.

    The “Web Sheriff” has made its position quite clear. Debate, I feel, is to welcomed rather than ignored.

    My apologies for being so long-winded in this regard. I am also going to post on my site concerning the questions raised by this development, so please feel free to drop in and join in the debate there also.

  • Jon

    I think the music business as we know it is dying. I don’t know that bloggers are the future, or even significant, but fans (and I mean serious fans) are what make pop culture go round. I came here from the secret Ib fan club site.

  • emmett

    I filled out the survey. Let’s see action!

  • ib

    As did I, emmett. Thanks. Despite any misgivings I may have, I agree taking part is important.

  • Jon

    Oh, I definitely filled it out. Some good may come of this yet.

  • ib

    Way to go, Jon. Cheers!

  • See, despite disclaimers, I had major concerns about filling out the survey once I saw the question about wholesale piracy. Samples are one thing; admitting to peer to peer downloading is quite another.

    I did the survey, but I’ll withhold judgement on the results until I see how that question is help up — if the querents make any claims at all about that part of the issue, I’m crying foul pretty quick, in fact.

  • ib

    I had concerns too, boyhowdy, but I entered disagree on that particular question since it led with “I don’t care about artists not receiving any money…” Bullshit!

    If you read the wording if really wasn’t asking you to confirm that you admit to file-sharing, and that question WAS optional anyway. had concerns too, boyhowdy, but I entered disagree on that particular question since it led with “I don’t care about artists not receiving any money…” Bullshit!

    If you read the wording if really wasn’t asking you to confirm that you admit to file-sharing, and that question WAS optional anyway. There was a hint of McCarthyism about that one though, I’ll grant you.

    LIVE AT THE WITCH TRIALS!

  • ib

    TAKE THE FUCKING POLYGRAPH!

  • ib,

    Isn’t it pretty much undisputed that the artists aren’t getting any money as a direct result of downloads from mp3 blogs (even the ones the follow the mp3 bloggers code of conduct)? If so, then anybody who downloads from any mp3 blog would have to answer “agree” to the question at issue. Unless the downloader mistakenly believes that the artists are getting paid by the bloggers.

    Isn’t an mp3 blog a “filesharing site”?

    My view is that responsible blogging is good for the industry. This view is backed up by the facts that (1) the industry allows blogs to exist, openly, and (2) promotes its artists to mp3 bloggers. But any profit to the artists is indirect. So I don’t think the question is unfair. Maybe just a little vague.

  • ib

    Paul, at the risk of being pedantic; as I mentioned previously I don’t put up entire albums on my site and I always carry links to commercial outlets such as Amazon. I can see from activity on my site that visitors frequently follow those links. If they are purchasing product then I am presuming the artists are receiving their cut.

    Blogs are not “filesharing” in the same fashion as Limewire or Napster. Have you seen the links on my site and on “The Rising Storm” ?

    Are you awake yet ?

  • ib

    Sorry, Paul. I just realised how tetchy I was just there. I agree that “responsible blogging is good for the industry” in the same way you outline as promotion, but I do think in addition to that individuals follow links to purchase that music promoted legitimately either on impulse, or after the fact from a record store or what have you.

    Therefore, it can benefit the artist both directly and indirectly. I don’t care to imagine seeing any visitor electronically tagged, however, in order to quantify his or her purchasing habits.

    The question was worded:
    “I use filesharing sites and programs knowing that the artist will not receive any money”

    I don’t use filesharing programs like Limewire or the old Napster – although I have done in the past – and for this reason and those others I mentioned I checked the box marked “disagree”.

    There is always an inherent drawback in multiple choice answer questionnaires in that they are drawn up to elicit a predetermined response. There is the short answer, and the longer reply where elucidation is required to make sense of it.

    I don’t think this survey goes far enough – as I mentioned earlier, I have reservations regarding it – but it does raise as many questions as those posed, and goes a step further towards creating dialogue with those who would wish to simply “close the fuckers down”.

  • Chabrell Igan

    God dag! Kan jag ladda ner en bild fran din blogg. Av sak med hanvisning till din webbplats!

  • Major artists are flocking to Tunecore. Bye bye major labels. I like the recommendation they got from one artist who said it’s like major promotion but without the cheap suits. Ouch and hilarious.

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