For over two years I've been a huge advocate of music blogs thinking of new ways to help out independent artists and labels. In my opinion it's not enough to have a readership and through plugging an unknown band feeling good about helping. It's every music bloggers job (who cares about the current state of music) to recondition how the consumer treats music as an art form and not a free commodity. WLFY does it fair share of Pitchfork bashing and people always ask why we care so much. The simple truth is Pitchfork back in the late 90's and early 2000's was a huge influence in shaping my musical appreciation. When they do something I don't like I'm going to point it out.
The good should be voiced as well. Today Pitchfork announced that they will be curating a Kickstarter page where they highlight projects in need that they deem worthy of support. Kickstarter has its critics and these people couldn't be more wrong. It's the best platform out there for creative types to pursue actually making projects that currently only dance in their own heads. It's not about handouts as each level results in a product. Bands can sell the album before it's even created and more importantly before the option of a free download is available.
Pitchfork doing this is a very important step forward simply because their readership is huge. I really hope they don't stop with Kickstarter. I've said for over a year Pitchfork's impact on the music industry could be much greater than it is now. We all know about the "Pitchfork Bump" for best new music unknowns, but if they created a visualization of their numbers album sales would double. What I suggest is a value meter next to the album review with links to where to buy (Physical and Digital). Be it amazon, bandcamp, etc...after an album sales on those sites, if linked from Pitchfork, the sale is put into the visualization album sale meter. This creates a group mentality for buying music. If you went to a review and saw it had made 10,000 dollars from Pitchfork linking, then that number would double in sales because people see people buying music.
For now I'm thrilled Pitchfork is helping with Kickstarter projects and here is to hoping that their involvement with directly influencing bands/artists financially continues.
Well this is nice. :-)
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