In this article Andy Greenwald, examines the success of Vampire Weekend, a band for former Columbia University undergrads, who have recently and rapidly been thrust into the forefront of the music industry because of the blog buzz they incurred.  Vampire Weekend appeared on the cover of the February 2008 issue of Spin Magazine, becoming the first band in Spin's history to achieve a cover before they have released an album.  Admittedly, the band avoided sending their demos to traditional record labels, calling the very idea "ultimately fruitless" due to the industry's rigid thinking.  Greenwald uses Vampire Weekend as the poster-child for the radical redefinition of 'success'  in the era of the Blog.  The band utilized this modern-grassroots venue to showcase their music, which with the internet, allowed for instantaneous dissemination. 

This article highlights the growing displacement of traditional record labels by MP3 Blogs.  Bands view the traditional route of label and broadcast radio play as obsolete, so much so that they choose to opt out of the process altogether.  Bands directly appeal to these new gatekeepers who in turn appeal to their audience with a review to the benefit or detriment of that particular band.  Also the idea of redefining success of bands is an important point to my claim that MP3 blogs have transformed the traditional music industry.  The article states that no longer is selling CDs, selling out concerts, or in this case, even having a CD out is a means of defining success.  Nowadays, success comes with generating blog buzz or appearing on a TV show that premiers to your demographic.  Old media now plays catch up with internet, as opposed to the pulling strings, as it had done for decades. 

This article is a roundtable orchestrated by The Morning News .Org consisting of several blog editors discussing the ethics and future of blogs. Oliver Wang of Soul Sides Blog and Sean Michaels of the Said the Gramophone get into an argument during the roundtable about the financial responsibility blogs have to the artists whose MP3's they upload.  Wang contends that artists,generally, do not make money off of record sales and cites touring as their main means of revenue.  Wang decides that the name recognition that MP3 blogs give these artists is more important than a few missing sales.  Michaels, howevers, rebuts with the fact that not all artists are able to tour (laptop based acts, tiny indie acts, and even older defunt bands such as the Beatles).  Michaels acknowledges that name recognition is a powerful gift but says to think of the fiscal effect of their piracy as "negligible" is a facile argument.  Michaels contends that the purpose of his blog is to expose an audience to new music, and for them to purchase the music.  Andrew Nosnitsky, of the Cocaine Blunts blog, chimes by saying that his blog deals in the out of print and obscure--so he in no way feels any fiscal responsibility.

This article both helps and complicates my argument that  MP3 blogs have transformed the music industry for the better.  The idea of using MP3 blogs as used bins/ rental emporiums is an interesting idea.  In the utopian view, the audience would take the MP3 for a while, delete the track after a thorough listen, then purchase the track if they liked it.  However, this view seems pretty naive and very 'honor-system' based.  How can blogs be sure that the illegal MP3 won't just remain on a user's computer. Also it calls into question the idea of 'name-recognition' being the most important thing for a new band.

This rebuttal ironically comes from a music blogger, and complicates my claim that blogs are poised to supersede traditional labels.  Dave Allen of Pempelmoose, states that blogs will simply not be the new music labels.  He credits this thinking to the crisis-mode state that the entire music industry is in and their hastiness to "grasp at straws."  His counterpoints center on a blogs' need to remain independent and his idea that record labels will not discontinue their functions as A&R sources.  Allen rebuts by saying that a blog must remain pure.  Plainly said, if they are contaminated by the corporate steamroller, blogs will lose the credibility they have garnered throughout the years.  Also, if MP3 blogging becomes a careerist endeavor, blogs will be shackled by a conflict of interest (promoting their own bands), betraying the very nature on which MP3 Blogs were founded. Also in regards to A&R, Allen states that the ceiling is caving in on major, not indie labels, who he claims to be thriving and will continue to act as band developers.

Allen is correct that if MP3 blogging became about money and sales, a conflict of interest would ensue.  However, there would be other blogs around who would police these postulated 'label-blogs' and poseurs would be quickly flagged and discredited.  Allen's second point is also true--major labels are flailing.  However that is all the more reason why MP3 blogs could become the new labels.  Capitalizing on the lack of trust in major record labels, a new system could develop--a congregation of smaller blogs.   

Written by correspondent Siddhartha Mitter, this article defines what an audio blogger actually is.  Mitter makes a claim that these MP3 bloggers are tastemakers--influencing their audience about what is good and what is not.  An important point is that audio bloggers don't just post an MP3 file, they also provide commentary, "a whimsical capsule review, with sound attached," he calls it.  He defines audio bloggers as unpaid obsessive music geeks who have capitalized on this generation's "sense of immediacy" about everything culture related.  He  acknowledges that bloggers have become the tastemaking elite, able to take acts such as Diplo from "obscurity to sensation" because of the 'buzz' these bloggere build.  Also mentioned briefly is a vague allusion to an unwritten Bloggers' Code of Conduct', in reference to how long a song is allowed to remain an downloadable.

This article raises several different issues pertinent to my topic.  First, it underscores the importance of the 'non-commercial' status of blogs in regards to their legality.  Second, it reaffirms the ideas that bloggers are the dictators of what is deemed "cool" as opposed to the industry public relation firms, music magazines, MTV (old media).  Perhaps most importantly, it parallels the mp3 blog and the book review.  An MP3 blog is contingent upon the fact that along with the MP3 posted, there is some sort of commentary to go along with it.  To me, this raises the question of Fair Use.  Obviously, book reviews are allowed to print excerpts of the book in their critiques, and the courts have ruled this as a transformative version of the original work.  My insinuation, is that MP3 blogs could fall under the same statute.  Does the fact the song is being being critiqued force the MP3 blog under the Fair Use Defense by creating a transformative work?