So I got into a verbal sparring yesterday with one freak who makes Kelly Clarkson stalkers look downright normal. The verbal battle, via the internet, was the result of one of one of my favorite music blogs choice to post 4 new Kelly demos for sampling purposes. There was an immediate backlash of sorts, with Kelly fans uniting to get the songs taken down. Administrators complied, despite the lack of a FORMAL request, in other words Kelly's record company or lawyers made no attempt to contact the blog about it. I did not download the songs. I didn't really want to. But some people were being complete tools and zealots, so I had to step up and protect the integrity of the music blog system.
Here's a little sample of our convo.
Me: Seriously crazy Kelly fans, take it down a notch. What are you doing reading a music blog if you’re going on a whole tirade about the legality of music sharing? Shouldn’t you be living in a cave with your copy of
My December instead of taking time to holier-than-thou us “crazies” who actually like to sample music before we buy it?
PS. The Hype Machine got its name for a reason. Because music blogs hype artists; as in, make them more buzzed about, popular, and eventually successful. PMA [The Blog Name] is the only reason I’m even thinking about Kelly Clarkson today. Tools.
Tool: LTK, your an ass… there are LEGAL WAYS to sample music, go to any store, they have lsitening stations, go to itunes or amazon, you can hear clips legally of a song.. if a one minute clip isn’t enough to know you like a song, you shouldn’t be listening to music at all. All these blogs due to sicrulate music illegally.. people get the music free, then don’t bother buying the album, because they already have the songs.
Me: Thanks for explaining itunes to me so well - I have been living in cave the last ten years so technology is pretty much a mystery. By the way expert, they’re 30 second clips and some of us who don’t consider Top 40 to be artistic genius need more than that to know we like a song. I may be an ass, but at least I’m not a hypocrite. Stop reading/supporting these music blogs you claim to hate. I DO
buy tons of great music thanks to PMA and other blogs, but thanks for generalizing and saying none of us do. That would be like me saying all people who can’t spell circulate correctly suck at life.
Basically it ended badly. And I didn't even listen to Kelly's songs. The point I was trying to drive home was about the importance of music blogs in artist promotion. Without them, so many upcoming and unsigned artists would not receive the breaks they're looking for in the industry. Artists have acknowledged this fact; thousands SEND their music to writers asking to be posted about. Professional music blogs often offer free and legal downloads, and if they are for sample purposes offer a disclaimer so that any legal infringement may be corrected immediately. Contrary to the belief of this Clarkson fan, you can never find full albums on blogs, and many of us use these samples as jumping blocks to go out and buy what we love.
I know it's petty, but fighting with this tool was fun. I hope I made him cry. Just a little. And over "Behind These Hazel Eyes" playing in the background.
Also, the new Death Cab album art is here thanks to Stereogum. What do you think kiddies? Sort of reminds me of a seventies acid trip. And by reminded I mean imagined; I'm not that old.
Also, the new Death Cab album art is here thanks to Stereogum. What do you think kiddies? Sort of reminds me of a seventies acid trip. And by reminded I mean imagined; I'm not that old.
