10 Frustrating Realities About Music Blogs

In a lot of ways, music blogs are a big part of why music is so exciting in 2013. More than ever before, you can hear music from all over the world that you'd never have a chance to hear if not for the Internet. We can keep up with all our favorite artists, learn about the history and context of subgenres and obscure scenes, and listen to as much as our heart desires.

But there is a lot wrong with the musical environment of 2013, and music blogs are big part of the problem. Obviously we're big fans of the blog world, but it's important to admit that there are some issues. Here are 10 frustrating realities about the music blog world.

For a young blogger, there aren't too many perks. You might get to go to some shows for free or get sent some free vinyl from time to time, but there is perhaps nothing more satisfying than hearing directly from the artists. For many bloggers, being connected directly with musicians is exciting, and you'll notice plenty of blogs who are so loyal to certain artists—regardless of the quality—that their credibility has to be called into question. If you're posting a new song because the artist invited you backstage during the last show, you're probably in it for the wrong reasons.

One of the great things about music blogs is their reaction time. If a new song drops, it will be up on the blogs within minutes. But the need for speed has its downsides, too. Instead of spending weeks, days, hours, or even minutes on a post, blogs are literally racing to throw something together and press publish. So yes, you'll have a new song the second it drops, but there's a good chance you'll have the wrong release date, inaccurate details on the album, wrong title, and misspelled artist name. Oh well.

If you write for a blog in 2013, you typically involve yourself in many of the trappings of blog life. You might have a Twitter relationship (or even an FB friendship!) with a number of other bloggers, engaging in snarky banter or the occasional multi-tweet debate. You may even be friends IRL, as the kids these days call it. It can be frustrating, however, to see bloggers constantly pandering to peers, colleagues, and other bloggers, creating an atmosphere that makes groupthink impossible to avoid.

While it's important for bloggers to build relationships, share ideas, and collaborate, too much of this takes away the individual voice that should exist in each site. Don't just agree with your new Internet friends, use your own brain and make an opinion that isn't informed by your other five favorite websites.

Once upon a time—back in the glory days of 2005-2007, let's say—the blog world was a bit more of a lawless game. Blogs had yet to become the recognized (and perhaps overly so) arbiters of taste and builders of buzz that they are now considered. At that time, one of the primary functions of music blogs around the net was providing free downloads of music, whether CD/vinyl-rips of old albums, single MP3s, or whole albums leaks.

While certain corners of the blogosphere still provide old album downloads and plenty of sites provide MP3s (often label or artists sanctioned), the album leak has all but dried up as an acceptable item for posting. At this point, posting leaked content, whether a single or an album, might seem fine, but it's the sort of action that continues to chip away at the value of recorded music while feeding the insatiable hunger for up-to-the-minute listening that can put a tremendous strain on the creative process. It's not that any one leak is particularly damaging to an artist's business or ability to create, but rather that the culture that facilitates such behavior can be damaging in the long run.

Many music bloggers take it upon themselves to shine light on music that might otherwise slip through the infinite cracks of the internet. While such writers can often lead open-minded, music-hungry fans to fascinating, lasting musical oases they might not otherwise have found, the rush to discover and champion talent can lead to a sense of exclusivity, like, "I found them first, they're mine now." Instead of being happy to see other sites pick up something they think is good, they start complaining about how everyone is hopping on the bandwagon.

It's like what they told you about the papers you wrote in school—always cite your sources. There is nothing worse when a blog sees another blog posting a new track and instead of acknowledging the other blog's diligence in finding that new new, the blog takes credit for something they didn't find. Who knows how much work it took for the original source to find that new new? The lengths to which they went? It's understandable that you want to look like you're the original source, but you sure as hell won't be getting any respect from your fellow bloggers if you're copping other people's stuff without giving credit where credit is due.

Let's set the scene. You wake up and roll out of bed. As usual, an episode of Planet Earth is still playing on your computer, the faint scent of weed and used socks fills the room, and that weird mix of Kid A and In Rainbows that you made where all the songs blend together is playing softly in the background. You gather yourself and ask, "I wonder what's going on in the world of music today." You load up your favorite music blog, itching to scroll down and find out what Snoop Lion is up to today. ALAS! You're stopped dead in your tracks by a pop-up ad. A video pop-up, no less. You can't find the close button. The audio that you didn't ask for plays. The ad company smirks at you as it robs you of your precious sanity and music listening time.

We've been there time and again, and we hate it too. We know. Marketing tactics are getting better and smarter, and in a few years we'll probably see an entirely new format of Internet advertising, but we've still got a long way to go, so don't expect to be pop-up free any time soon.

If you love music, you sometimes feel like you have to keep up with everything. In the past, this was impossible, so music lovers would take in as much as they could and be okay with missing some things. That's not the case anymore.

With music blogs constantly providing a stream of music stories, lists, songs, and videos, we're starting to become accustomed to an absurd rate of consumption. It's very possible to read almost every piece of music-related news in a given day, and many of us feel like we have to. You don't realize how ridiculous this is until someone is like, "Did you read that story about when Justin Bieber went to brunch and they forgot the capers on his bagel and he FLIPPED OUT?" And you're like, "Yeah, that was yesterday's news. Catch up."

In the last half decade or so, we've seen a number of artists blow up from blog-buzz, get signed to major label contracts, and stall or, worse, nose-dive once the mainstream spotlight was shown on them. Early blog posterchild Charles Hamilton springs to mind. Kreayshawn provides another prominent example. Most recently, Trinidad James offers up another potential test case (though the jury's still out on his post-"All Gold Everything" existence).

In many cases, the artists that get trumpeted by blogs and signed to lucrative contracts have something going for them--talent, personality, some kind of pull that makes them worth a definite look. Just as often, however, overstatement on the part of bloggers can amplify those characteristics and create the perception of some sort of greater movement surrounding an artist than actually exists. While listeners and labels (for most part) are getting better at sussing out the empty hype from the real deal, the echo chamber of the blogosphere still creates paper tigers--and expensive ones at that.

Spend too much time on the Internet focused on one thing and it's very easy to lose a hold of your audience's perspective. The world of music blogging often turns into a hyper-aware community of people who consume music and music-related news at insane levels. Add in social media and the cliques that form when like-minded people come together and you've got a strange environment in which music writers have no grasp of how the typical listener/reader thinks about music.

Shit, are we guilty of this right now? Bloggers blogging about blogging? Probably.