Right then. I’m back with further prophecies of doom and destruction. I am the harbinger of despair. Oh yes. Gird yourself fellow music bloggers.
My last post in this series (joyfully titled The Death of Music Blogging) provoked quite a response. I’m not sure I even agreed with much of it myself but the conversation was a hoot.
If you missed it we outlined a simple nightmare scenario for many a music blogger; the slow, painful demise of traffic as the result of new methods of music discovery, think what happened to Melody Maker but with, like, computers and stuff.
In this post we outline the second nightmare scenario (get out the tissues fellow bloggers) – the Day of Reckoning.
Yep. What we bloggers, and other benefiters of an open internet fear, is the day when we wake up, log-on and it’s gone. Dead. Finito. All that’s left is a 404 error, or a page not recognised, or most chillingly a notice from SOCA.
Hyperbole perhaps, but it happened to RnBxclusive. ‘That’s a one-off’ I hear you cry. ‘Crooks that got what they deserved’ you holler. Well, yes. They were blatantly stealing music and passing it on to tens of thousands of hollow-headed chumps. Bad. Whether that’s something serious enough for SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) to get their hands into is another question for another time…
Over-here at SGTMT we pride ourselves on NOT short-changing artists. To our knowledge (we do check) all mp3s on this site have been made available by the artist or an organisation associated with the artist (excuse the semi-legal prose).
But our righteous blogging policy does NOT mean we will be excused when ‘the time’ comes.
You see, though the threat of SOPA in the states seems to have dwindled and the activities of SOCA here in the UK seem rare and well targeted, the threat of internet governance still looms large.
‘But why will internet governance threaten the lawful activities of us hardy music bloggers?’. A good question dear reader.
Well, that question makes the assumption that any impending governance will be measured, thought-out and sufficiently focused.
The nightmare scenario is that any such governance will be more akin to the iron curtain. Think internet access in Iran or China.
Some of the darker corridors of the internet could be sealed off, put behind pay-walls, age-walls or just bricked shut. And I for one would welcome a censorship crackdown on the sewers and grim back alleys that lurk on the web. But, what happens when the powers that be decide that in the interests of the record producing megaliths that those ‘nasty, naughty music blogs like RnBxclusive’ should be banished?
Will they sensibly discriminate? Perhaps not. Will they aimlessly cull? Most likely. And why would they discriminate? I run a two-bob music blog read by an infinitesimally tiny audience. Most of whom will be pleased to be rid of my elongated witterings if they notice at all.
Even collectively through valued sites like the Hype Machine and Shuffler we still hold a fairly minor web audience with little real influence.
Our days could be numbered.
Far fetched? Certainly, I love to stir things up.
Do I have any actual evidence to support my argument? Erm… kinda, well, not really…
A possibility? Even a faint one? You decide.
Comments welcome.
