Music Journalism Desperately Needs More Muckrakers
In the face of unceasing corporate consolidation and the normalization of extractive business practices, the traditional music press shows little interest in pushing back against the industry's ills.
Last week I hosted a live talk with writer Liz Pelly, and while most of our allotted hour was focused on her acclaimed book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, the conversation at one point turned to the current state of music journalism. More specifically, we spoke about one thing that music journalism is not doing very much of these days: interrogating the power structures that not only control much of the music industry, but also define the terms of engagement for those who wish to participate in it.
Pelly, of course, is an exception to this trend. Long before Mood Machine was published this past January, she’d spent the better part of a decade investigating, examining and reporting on Spotify and the wider streaming landscape. Though she’s certainly not the only person who’s tackled the topic, Pelly’s persistence, not to mention the quality of her work, has been instrumental in elevating the streaming debate beyond grotty green rooms and obscure online forums. It’s also won her many fans among her fellow music journalists, and when a Mood Machine excerpt called “Ghosts in the Machine” was published in Harper’s late last year, veteran jazz scribe and musical historian Ted Gioia practically gushed about Pelly in his widely read Honest Broker newsletter, crediting her with revealing “the ugly truth about Spotify.”
Pelly cited that article in our talk last week, not as some sort of humblebrag, but because of an observation Gioia made about the traditional press and its seeming lack of interest in taking a closer look at the streaming issue:
A few months ago, I spoke with an editor at one of the largest newspapers in the world. I begged him to put together a team of investigative journalists to get to the bottom of this.
“You need to send people to Sweden. You need to find sources. You need to find out what’s really going on.”
He wasn’t interested in any of that. He just wanted a spicy opinion piece. I declined his invitation to write it.
In this particular instance, Gioia had wanted the professional media to dig into the issue of so-called “ghost artists” on Spotify and other streaming platforms. But in the span of just a few sentences, he effectively (and perhaps inadvertently) summed up a problem that plagues the whole of the modern music press. Despite being tasked, at least in theory, with keeping tabs on the music industry and informing readers about its (often unsavory) inner workings, contemporary publications appear to have shockingly little appetite for following the money or questioning existing power structures. And on the rare occasions when the media does choose to wade into those waters, it tends to prioritize fiery “takes” over sustained, in-depth reporting.
During a week when Sónar—a world-renowned electronic music festival that’s now owned by KKR, an investment fund with documented ties to to fossil fuel extraction, weapons manufacturing, crowd-control technology and entities that operate in the occupied West Bank—is officially kicking off here in Barcelona, the failure of the music press to fully investigate those ties feels especially concerning. Add in the festival’s misleading string of public communications, an official BDS boycott and the persistent trickle of artist cancellations—just yesterday, Skee Mask disappeared from the official line-up, while Matthew Herbert publicly withdrew—and it’s worth asking why traditional music outlets aren’t dedicating some real resources to this story.
What’s been happening with Sónar might be the most recent example, but it’s part of a much larger trend, and in a time when corporate interests are actively seeking to expand their already enormous influence over the music ecosystem, it increasingly feels like large publications are either unwilling or unable to ask the questions that need asking.
Where are the muckrakers?