The dozen “music journalism” professionals at yesterday’s Condition Critical panel of the Future of Music Coalition’s three-day long “policy summit” became somewhat divided (at least from my perspective) over the course of a well-attended hour & three-quarters session. At one end of a spectrum of opinion were the old guard — me, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune and Tom Moon, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer — asserting that good music journalism puts the music in context, “illuminates, educates and entertains” its readers and reaches beyond its niche to satisfy those who are not devoted yo but may be curious about a given musical topic. At the other was Raymond Leon Roker of URB/URB.com and Todd Roberts, co-founder of the Daily Swarm, who suggested that success in music journalism comes from amplifying, echoing and reinforcing the interests of the largest attractable audience. I may be drawing this too reductively, but it felt like an argument: developing substantive content vs, ever-better marketing, without much interest in content, using the processes of social media.
Everybody’s talking about arts journalism
After last Friday’s summit on new media affecting those who write, read and listen produced by the National Arts Journalism Program/USC Anneberg Center, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s Future of Music Coalition session “Critical Condition: The Future of Music Journalism.”
It comes as a climax of the FMC’s Sunday-through-Tuesday “Policy Summit” on digital options and challenges for musicians, with an emphasis on intellectual property rights and compensation as well as new tools for music-making. A “high-quality, interactive webcast” of the FMC event is being produced by web.illish.us and you can get a free “virtual seat” from which to watch it here.