Urlaubshits

I think it fitting that the topic for my first regular column, or opinion piece, (or rant depending on how you view these things) by writing about myself. Well, not myself per se, but the MP3 blogger in general. MP3 bloggers are both revered and loathed. Some are seen as taste makers, some as self-promoting arseholes. Every one of them however, has to have quite an ego, as it takes a special kind of person to go into the public sphere and basically declare that their view on music is correct. In some ways it’s good that we have people who are willing to go online to challenge the status quo, but as is the case with much of the internet, the majority of these people are downright stupid. I don’t need to tell you which of these blogs I am referring to, because if you’re here, and you’re reading, you probably know which ones they are too. It doesn’t matter how great your CSS is, or how big and professionally designed your logo is, if you can’t punctuate, spell, or be bothered to do the most basic modicum of research on your topic, or, as is mostly the case, even be bothered to write about your topic at all, then your lack of professionalism shows.

Since Urlaubshits’ arrival on the Hype Machine a few months ago, things have been rosy – more visibility means more readers and more contacts – but the added visibility has made me consider my practice all the more. Blogging can become kind of addictive when you live for the traffic – a dangerous road to go down, especially when your standards begin to slip. Part of the reason behind the recent site redesign was to give things a bit more of a coherent framework, as I had felt that the lack of structure inherent in the traditional blog format was leading to posts being somewhere between informed and informal, an insipid middle ground that is a nightmare for a writer.

Producer and DJ Ewan Pearson talked about blogging recently in his column for Germany’s Groove magazine, (also here at his website) and made the argument that if bloggers were so good at writing then they shouldn’t need to post tracks to entice their readers, as the aim should be to describe the music well enough to make people want to go out and search for it. This is a view I completely agree with, but as a pragmatist, I have to accept that if I were to go down this route, I probably wouldn’t have any readers. The fact is that most bloggers are nobodies, and even the ones that are somebody are still several degrees below the people that really matter. The Hype Machine offers a way for bloggers to find their audiences. The MP3 is a carrot at the end of a stick, but in many cases if it weren’t for that carrot most people would have difficulty finding their readership. I think the issue should be whether the blogger is offering a single carrot, or a whole bag of carrots. Bloggers should be seriously asking themselves “why am I doing this?”. If it’s because you love writing, then write about the music. If writing isn’t your thing, then at least put some thought into what you’re posting rather than just uploading a 25 track megapost to increase your Hype Machine traffic. I have no problem with people using blogs to promote their own endeavors – it’s part of a democratization of music culture that previously could only have been dreamed of ten years ago, but the blog/artist relationship has to be symbiotic, not parasitic, otherwise we risk sucking the lifeblood out of our whole raison d’etre.

All blogs of course have a disclaimer, which is there because it makes us bloggers feel a bit better about ourselves, but that disclaimer is all too often a hollow gesture. That disclaimer is something of a white elephant for bloggers. It sits there, but is rarely ever questioned or discussed, and it often sits in place of any kind of real policy. MP3s are proclaimed as being for sampling purposes, but when the supposed sample is a 320kb MP3, where is the incentive to buy another version? The Hype Machine make it clear that to be included on their site, a blog “advocates responsible use of copyrighted material, includes buy links in the posts, does not post unauthorized works.” This is of course nonsense, as the majority of blogs on the internet posts unauthorized works (although “unauthorized works” is a rather ambiguous term), and there are certainly many blogs out there that do not use copyrighted material in a responsible manner. Explore the “Hottest Blogs” on the front page of the Hype Machine, and you will quite often find that these blogs have their place through sheer volume of tracks posted, or through the posting of the highest quality versions of the latest tracks. Is this really all that responsible?

This question of responsibility has been rattling around my brain for some months now. I have been struggling to work out how I can strike the right balance between being responsible, and not completely losing the passing trade from the Hype Machine that, whether I like it or not, I rely on to a degree. What I’ve come up with, I’m going to be completely up front about. Inspired by another Ewan Pearson Groove column, (picked up and expanded here to great effect by Philip Sherburne), in which he declares himself “The Supreme Overlord of Dance Decrees”, I have decided to come up with my own supreme decrees of blogging:

1) No MP3s of singles less than one year old will be posted for download without the express permission of the artist. These will be offered as streams only.
2) Uploading of new material is limited to single track mixes, which I will provide monthly, barring unforeseen circumstances.
3) Hosting of single track MP3 downloads will be limited to tracks from albums only, and only one track per post may be uploaded.
4) When posting these said album tracks, I will aim to post the track that I feel offers the most critical interest, rather than simply the track that I suspect may get me the most hits.
5) No MP3 download shall exceed 128kb in quality, without express permission.
6) I will never add unnecessarily MP3s to the end of blog items simply to increase my Hype Machine traffic.
7) No posting of Soulwax remixes.
8) No posting of unofficial remixes of Justice tracks.
9) No posting of tracks from leaked LCD Soundsystem albums.
10) No more “bloghouse”.

You can make of this what you will. I am in no way saying that all blogs should follow these decrees, as they are for myself, but it would be nice if bloggers were a little more conscientious about what they posted, and were maybe a little more transparent about their practices.

It may seem like MP3 blogging is something that is now widely condoned by the record industry. In some cases it is, but in a lot of cases it isn’t. Us bloggers don’t really have anyone to answer to apart from ourselves. It’s up to us to keep ourselves in check, and lead by our own example.

What do you think? Is my manifesto an improvement? Is is more ethical? Am I talking out of my rear end? Are there any bloggers out there who want to respond? Let me know. The gloves are officially off…