Music Blogging Is Back. Enjoy It While It Lasts.
a.k.a. A surge of new newsletters and podcasts has given rise to what increasingly feels like a healthy independent music media ecosystem, but its long-term sustainability is far from assured.
(Note: The following piece was first published one day before the news broke about the restructuring of Pitchfork and the wave of layoffs that subsequently gutted its staff. The ripple effects of that will certainly impact many of the topics covered in this essay, and will undoubtedly prompt more music journalists to set up their own shop in the months ahead.)
Just a few days into 2024, I got tagged in a tweet by Rob Abelow, author of a industry-focused newsletter called Where’s Music Going.
“Music blogs are dead,” he boldly proclaimed.
That, not surprisingly, sent commenters (and the Twitter algorithm) into a tizzy—the post has been viewed more than 100,000 times—even though the remainder of Abelow’s comments quickly pivoted to talk of newsletters as the best way for muisc fans discover new sounds and “go deeper.” First Floor was listed as an example, along with newsletters like Sam Valenti’s Herb Sundays, Philip Sherburne’s Futurism Restated, Sasha Frere-Jones’ S/FJ and several other outlets.
I appreciate the inclusion—it’s probably not a coincidence that First Floor had a rush of new subscribers in the days that followed—but I, like many people who responded to Abelow directly on Twitter, do take a bit of an issue with his framing. Having run First Floor for more than four years now, and also speaking as someone who had a Blogspot back in the day, I can pretty confidently say that publishing a newsletter is basically an updated form of blogging. The main difference is that with newsletters, the blog entries are sent directly to readers’ inboxes, rather than merely floating among the infinite flotsam and jetsam of the internet.
In a sense, music blogs aren’t dead. They might actually be bigger than ever, and this time around, they even have a decent monetization infrastructure for those looking to make a proper job (or maybe a side hustle) out of their writing.
Setting aside the fact that I, like many writers, cringe at the idea of referring to myself as a “blogger,” there are certainly some good things about the current “blogaissance.” Independent publishing has never been easier or more accessible, and its growth during the past few years, fueled by the expansion of Substack and other newsletter platforms, is undoubtedly why many of you are reading this piece right now. For electronic music fans, new newsletters are popping up every day, and in combination with a growing number of podcasts (e.g. No Tags, Rave the Grave, Not a Diving Podcast, Club Management) and a handful of what could be described as more standard blogs (e.g. Passion of the Weiss, No Bells), something resembling an independent media ecosystem—one that isn’t wholly reliant on social media or chasing clicks—does seem to be taking shape.
That’s great, right?
It’s surely made our collective reading and listening options more interesting, particularly as more traditional music media outlets continue to rot from within, increasingly filling the gaps in their coverage (and their business models) with advertorial and overtly branded content. The relative lack of barriers in the neo-blogosphere has also enabled some new voices to enter the conversation, a much-needed development considering that many of electronic music’s most established writers have reached at age where they’re no longer at the club every weekend. (I myself fall into that category.)
There’s a problem though. As exciting as all these newsletters, podcasts and blogs may be, they all rely on something that’s unlikely to last forever: lots and lots of free and underpaid labor.