Idolator
A post on Still Listen To Gangsta Music pointed us in the direction of a recent XXL feature about the Internet and hip-hop. There were some interesting observations in the piece—such as the lack of a true Internet-nurtured hip-hop star, and the backlash against Diddy's YouTube campaign—but just as the story was getting going, we bumped into this:
We understand that the big-name music magazines are still adapting to the blog world, but if XXL really wants us to take its Internet-music exegesis seriously—if it wants the piece to be read, forwarded, heralded, savaged, etc.—it has to put the whole damn story on the web. No more of this "Here's a lil' taste, now buy the issue" pussyfooting around: Publications like XXL, Complex, The Source, and Spin all need to realize that momentum for their bigger stories is created online, and in order to get that heat, they've got to release those features to the wilds of the web, free of charge (even if that means the ad-sales team throws a conniption). It's the only way to engage a young audience that's grown accustomed to reading about music solely on the Internet.
Besides, do you people have any idea how hard it is to hit 24 posts a day without more stories to make fun of?
New World [XXLmag.com, excerpt only]
Comments
This is the perennial argument between new media and old media that goes on and on. (See: RIAA, MPAA) They see their own death in the eyes of the online department and freak out. The basic understanding that the online audience is different, has different expectations, and reads articles differently online just doesn't register. But the funny part is, if they don't adapt with the cultural shift, the audience that they are courting is going to see them as the old fuddy duddies they are (did I just use that phrase?)--and leave in droves. Of course for some of these mags they already have.
Yep. And weirdly. Rolling Stone has been smarter about this than most of the other music mags--they realize that big features (i.e. Lethem's Dylan story, "Worst COngress Ever," etc.) would likely get blog traction, so they put them online ASAP. At the very least, EVERY music mag's cover story and reviews section should be online for free, with no subscriber walls or teases.
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