For one thing, even though there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bloggers out there, most uploading several songs every day (compared with the massive number of songs downloaded on file-sharing networks), the traffic the sites attract is small peanuts. For another, even though mainstream stuff is easy to find, for the most part the songs made available on mp3 blogs are from indie artists and are hardly the massive unit movers the RIAA presumably spends the most time fretting about.
Most important, the name of the game here isn’t to get as much stuff as you possibly can for free: it’s to spread the word about new artists and new albums. The blogs almost always make the songs available for just a limited time (a week, maybe two); include links to online retailers such as Amazon.com, eMusic, and iTunes to facilitate purchase of the full album; and post a disclaimer. “Please go out and buy the records!” reads the notice posted on Said the Gramophone, one of the first and best mp3 blogs. “All songs are removed within a week or two of posting. If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early.”
But as it happens, some copyright holders — even the Big Five record companies — are quite happy to have their songs on blogs. In 2004, when the medium was still in its infancy, the New York Times reported that Warner Brothers Records sent an mp3 from the new record by the Secret Machines to eight music bloggers. “They are an indie rock band and we would love for people to hear the band’s music from your site,” an employee, Ian Cripps, wrote. “Here it is, listen to it and let me know if you will post it.”
One blog, Music for Robots, took Warner Brothers up on it. Before long, in the comments section, a few user reviews cropped up that looked a little disingenuous. “I never heard these guys before, but theyre [sic] awesome,” wrote one listener. “I went to their website and you can listen to a lot of ther [sic] other stuff, very cool andvery [sic] good!” Later, that comment and others were found to have come from an IP address used by Warner Music.
When the Phoenix asked the RIAA about its stance on mp3 blogs, we were supplied with the following statement via e-mail: “If artists, record companies, publishers and others choose to use music blogs to distribute their music, that is their choice and we think that’s a great thing. It is important that bloggers respect the value of music by obtaining the appropriate licenses from the copyright owners, or their designees.”
Many indie labels have been known to take advantage — to great effect — of the free buzz the blogs provide. Matador Records has partnered with YouTube, too, for its “Pretty Girls Make Graves ‘Make Our Video’ Contest.” (The Phoenix is also sponsoring a contest, in which four fans will interview the band OK Go and edit their film, which will be posted on YouTube.) And while navigating the bounty of these blogs used to be haphazard, requiring users to surf from one bookmarked page to the next, new efforts to bring the strongest blogs together in one site make taking advantage of their ever-increasing number easier than ever.
