Who are music journalists anyway? They are people who love music and write about it in an insightful, engaging manner, in the form of album reviews, breaking music news and gossip, or reporting on live performances, style ranging from critical to entertaining. They have the opportunity to interview famous (or not-so-famous) musicians. Their writings have appeared in music publications like Rolling Stone, the NME, and Blender, and in newspapers. Then the Internet came along and turned all this on it's head.

The aforementioned publications have active websites featuring companion content to what one would find inside the magazines, and often much, much more. Some of the perks of choosing the website over buying the magazine include: polls, community interactivity in forums and article comments, newletters, and web-exclusive content, not to forget about the fact that it is totally free of charge to the visitor. Many purely Internet-based and webzine-style websites have gained much ground in recent years due to this growing trend of people getting the majority of their music news on-line, Pitchfork being a prime example.

Though the NME and Pitchfork are popular sources of music criticism and news, I have heard many music enthusiasts express a sort of distrust for them, decrying their style as being "hipster focused" and "too indie", an impetus for many to start their own blog and be more vocal in music forums, and, alternately, an inspiration for those who admire the style of these and other sources.The Internet has given them a platform for expressing themselves through what might be referred to as 'amateur' music journalism, and though the quality varies wildly, it can be just as high as what you would expect to find in the professional realm.

I am talking about youth and music journalism. This age group ranges from early teenage years all the way to the late 20's. These are the people that are accustomed to using websites such as those I've mentioned above, music forums and places like Amazon.com and Rate Your Music to make music purchasing/downloading decisions. They use MOG and Last.fm to track their listening habits and get recommendations, expanding their tastes and connections with like-minded music fans all the while. It is due to the proliferation of professional music journalism on the web that there has been a definite and not-so-underground movement in opposition to it, or in support of it, depending on whose blog you're looking at!

A quick scan of the current journal entries on Last.fm linked to the Radiohead artist page reveals a diverse array of reading material, ranging from an insightful tale of one's journey through genres and albums through life, best-of lists featuring albums, concerts, and music videos, and the lighter material of multi-artist playlists and journal memes like "what's the soundtrack of your life?" and "top artist quizzes". Continuing to use Radiohead as an example here, let's venture over to MOG's recently popular posts connected to that that band; concert footage, top 50 radio rock songs of all-time, 2009 tour dates, exclusive photos, and album sales statistics. Using Google Blog Search brings up the vast array of Radiohead posts out there, and by vast array I mean 1,100,000+ posts, sorted by relevance or date. Results can be narrowed by typing in additional details into the search field, like "thom yorke", "in rainbows", "best of", and so on. Still think you must use a "traditional" source to get your music fix? I thought not.

It is easy to get your posts connected to artist pages if you are a member of a website like Last.fm or MOG, but how do you get your content noticed if you have an independent music blog hosted elsewhere? As with blogs focusing on other subject matter, making connections with other bloggers is essential, as is encouraging readers to post comments and giving your blog an attractive layout. Consider recruiting a contributor or two and build up an archive of quality posts over time. Determine your niche: your taste in music may be diverse, but attracting a specific audience that wants to come to your blog for information and entertainment related to a niche (i.e. top 40, reggae, indie, mod culture, and so on) will serve you well in the long-run, and even if they are several related niches (i.e. one blog focusing on gothic, post-punk, and alternative 80's music). Submitting your blog to networks like MOG's Music Network (MMN), SoundWord, and Technorati will help to boost your visibility. Break news, be interesting...if you build it and promote it, they will come.

• SoundChaser wrote ...

• at 04:53, Monday 5 January 2009

"Nice job on this article! Alas, it appears there's something wrong with the SoundWord link - maybe their server is down or something...."

• Marilyn Roxie wrote ...

• at 05:28, Wednesday 7 January 2009

"@SC: They must have been down for a bit; the link for SoundWord is back up again! :)"