Rafi is one of the smartest y snarkiest people I know.
So I when I saw his comments on the Musictank blog about blogs, community and the long tail I knew that I when I had some time I would want to blog about it.
The post titled Barking up the Wrong Chart on Musicthinktank.com is about the changes in the music industry, low album sales, artist websites vs. media channel sites.
The author, Bruce Warila’s main contentions are that,
Artist sites just fall flat when it comes to delivering the value that makes a website popular.
A limited selection of songs, a few videos, a pile of images, a schedule and some blog posts are not going to cut the mustard.
To begin with, ten major artists, thirty to forty mid-level artists, and fifty up-and-coming artists on the same site can deliver additional and expanded value that standalone artist sites cannot.
A multi-artist site can go far beyond the this-site-informs-me and the this-site-entertains-me-for-more-than-ten-minutes value propositions. As someone that has been working in software for twenty years and tracking this industry for the last five, this seems like one of the best places to begin.
Rafi’s left comments in the comments section which stated that:
I think it’s a mistake to think artist online initiatives are failing if they’re not putting up the numbers of the most popular websites. Let’s face it… traffic and page views are flawed metrics that don’t tell a story of mindshare captured or potential revenue. If you can use your website/facebook page/mailing list to speak to those inclined to support/fund/evangelize your efforts, that is a success.
Also, although I love that ?uestlove quote about the power of being part of a movement, i think it’s basically just as unlikely for a collection of artists functioning as a single website to become a trafficked destination as it is for a single artist.
Immediately as I heard him talk, in the comments section about blogs, community and site traffic as being a poor indicator of blog “value” I knew that he was on to something.
I also realized that Rafi, Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook) and I understand something that Bruce may not, which is that the “value” in a site is not the content perse but in the community that comes there, and the information that they share.
Facebook is useful to advertisers because of the information that WE share is sold to advertisers for the purposes of marketing to us.
An independent music artist can cultivate his or her fan base using the information that fans share on an artist blog.
Kev Brown and LMNO are on tour right now promoting Selective Hearing 2 , and I stay checking Kev’s blog for new tracks because I have wanted that album since February. #ummhmm. Fans check sites because they want to support and DO support.
When Rafi says, “traffic and page views are flawed metrics that don’t tell a story of mindshare captured or potential revenue. If you can use your website/facebook page/mailing list to speak to those inclined to support/fund/evangelize your efforts, that is a success” my antenna went up.
In many ways I think Rafi is right about the tension between page views and building community. Blogging for me is about building community for my ideas, having a space to work out scholarly thoughts, and having a space to discuss issues with people who are interested in similar things.
Three weeks ago I was at a conference on Black Feminism and a big time Feminist, Cheryl Clarke, shouted my blog out.? I was honored, but now people (colleagues) are asking me about the blog and its a little bugged because this has been a space that has grown organically.? I don’t tell people I just met that I blog. Its my space. Pepe also pointed out that most people are taught to “brand” themselves so that they are constantly talking about what they are doing, communities they are apart of. I don’t. And learning how to claim my writing voice has been a process and a challenge. However, later on that night at our post conference dinner, I spoke with the editor of the Feminist Press about blogging, about how I don’t have ad’s on my blog, and what it means to cultivate such a space. I see my blog as playing a role in facilitating these kinds of conversations.
I don’t write ONLY to be affirmed. MANY folks do NOT agree with me. AND THEY TELL ME. ON A REGULAR BASIS.
MANY.
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But they take the time to comment and that means a lot, because it allows for a much richer discussion. It also shows me that I have written something compelling enough to get someone to take 15 minutes out of their day to read and respond to, and this is meaningful.
I also pride myself on having a blog that serves as a safe space for men and women, to talk about race, gender, sexuality and patriarchy.
Furthermore, in the end, when I do publish a book of blog posts and essays, the people first group of people that I would market this work to ARE blog readers and folks on twitter who have said that they have enjoyed my writing.
Ultimately, the issue is whether you want to have slow money and take the time to build a community, OR if you want have the greatest number of page hits possible, for the purposes of having ad dough, because you want to be acquired by a corporation.
Rafi nails this when he says,
And I don’t only think of ad models. Quite the opposite. You’re the one judging sites based on if they generate a ton of traffic. If you’re chasing all the traffic you can get on your site, that means you’re probably aiming to please advertisers more so than your audience.
He then goes on to discuss the success of Okay Player and the importance of community when he says,
What drove OkayPlayer’s success was the community. And to quote the above post it’s “not the content silly” OKP filled a major void for people who were looking for a site that reflected their identity – a hugely popular genre / culture that wasn’t being repped online.
Sure, it’s creation was brilliant. And sure we can learn from it. But to think that anything close to that level of success can be achieved without similarly fortuitous circumstances (timing, gaping market void, fame) is nuts.
When talking about the purpose of artist blogs vs. aggregators he says,
When traffic is the game, the aggregator always wins. Ask the myriad of passer-throughs if OkayPlayer did so much for them and I think you will find different answers. How much did Pharoahe Monch or deadprez benefit from being part of the OkayPlayer collective?
And in many ways the crux of the contradiction lies at the pursuit of ad dough and the pursuit of community.
This notion of upping page views can be inversely related to building community became clear on my blog when people complained about not having a scroll bar that allowed them to scroll between new posts quickly. I was reminded that readers need to have control over how and when the access the post. And if they don’t they may not read, and definitely will not comment.
Adding the scroll mechanism has correlated to comments from people who recently stumbled upon the blog and have stated they they were really moved by what they read. Today, that it a measure of success for moi.
Questions for @rafikam and the rest of us who care about independent artists online and their careers, as well.
What happens to music blogs when bloggers are more concerned with pleasing advertisers then their blog community?
Isn’t this the same thing that happened to music magazines?
Will the fact that “suits” are beholden to the bottom line, and don’t get building community, perpetually marry them to page views as a metric?
Where is the music blog for alternative (rock + Boombap + hip hop) cats that HAS community, new material daily, and is more beholden to artists + their fans than a corporation and ain’t misogynistic as shit?
Do you go to Okayplayer? If so why?
Rafi has also written about page views not being the best metric in the post “Whats that Blog Post Worth” about hip hop blogs and blog post “value.”
Hot damn am I glad you brought this out of the comments, I thought it was one of the more important exchanges at MTT so far in 2010.
Your questions:
1. What happens to music blogs when bloggers are more concerned with pleasing advertisers then their blog community?
Well, that’s been the case the entire time, hasn’t it? We’re all doing alright despite that. Honestly, as an artist, I would RATHER deal with someone who’s got the brainpower and basic ambition to monetize what they do. It indicates they take it seriously. 99% of the bloggers who do it for love and art are inconsistent and usually sloppy as all hell. That said, when there are exceptions, they are huge, awesome, important exceptions. But I think Google AdSense has a limited impact.
2. Isn?t this the same thing that happened to music magazines?
Maybe? I was always under the impression that “lifestyle” advertisers decided they were better off doing precise targeting online — and that leaves you with a whole bunch of record labels trying to talk you down on ad space month after month…aka, doomed. I think you could argue that Google AdWords ethered that particular industry, and 10,000 niches just like it.
3. Will the fact that ?suits? are beholden to the bottom line, and don?t get building community, perpetually marry them to page views as a metric?
Nope. Social media consultants might be a life form roughly on par with herpes, but they are at least raising awareness of metrics beyond pageviews. Guys like Clay Shirky and Umair Haque have really been raising awareness in the business press about how to really measure meaningful engagement vs. page views. There’s definitely dinosaur hold-outs, but most of them are in the process of getting fired as our economy continues to wind down towards zero. I think the pageview mentality is on it’s way out, even with the Brooks Brothers crowd.
4. Where is the music blog for alternative (rock + Boombap + hip hop) cats that HAS community, new material daily, and is more beholden to artists + their fans than a corporation and ain?t misogynistic as shit?
Twitter, I’m on there every day. Other people’s results may vary, but my feed definitely functions exactly like what you’re outlining here. I get to check out new music from dozens of different blogs simply because that shows up in my feed.
I would definitely like to see a Native Tongues style renaissance movement, though. Hipster irony will apparently forgive anything, but I sure as shit don’t.
Great post. Though I’ve got some ad spaces on my own site, my main objective has been to create unique content. Developing a community continues to be a work in progress. I look to people like Rafi and yourself as role models for good blog etiquette. Your write-up raised two devil’s advocate-type questions/discussions for me…
One: Isn’t there a gray area between bloggers who prioritize page views and bloggers who prioritize an active readership/community? In essence, these are damn-near synonymous, but the semantics makes one group the more ‘admirable’ over the other. After all, an active readership/community materializes into more page views. And perhaps the vice versa of this is true as well. A site like Nah Right, while publishing scores of posts per day that get swallowed up in a deluge of even more posts, still maintains a very active following. Take a quick peek at a random Nah Right post that’s already been pushed back to page 3 within mere hours and you may just find 100+ comments. So when you speak of boosting page views being detrimental to community-building, my instinct tends to agree. But my skepticism — and key examples — tell another story.
Two: Semi-related, you touched on publishing a book on blog posts and essays (presumably mostly from this site – correct me if mistaken). I was wondering if you could elaborate on that, perhaps in a new post, as far as why you’d feel the need to essentially recycle content that’s already here. What is your motivating factor?
Now, on to your questions:
1. “What happens to music blogs when bloggers are more concerned with pleasing advertisers then their blog community?”
I’m a bit naive to the act of pleasing advertisers (personally, I’ve never spoken with any directly). From the onset, I suppose it depends on the community itself, doesn’t it? As a publisher though, there’s only so much output one can give, so prioritizing one over the other definitely means the “other” will take a loss.
2. “Isn?t this the same thing that happened to music magazines?”
Maybe yes, maybe no. I can tell you from my own experience that though I subscribe to two publications — The New Yorker and Esquire, neither of which would be classified as music rags — I don’t really check out magazines as much as I used to, thanks in large part to the internet. But we already know that story. I wouldn’t argue that The New Yorker HASN’T increased its amount of ads. But it’s easy to flip over an ad on paper. Likewise, when you’ve got AdBlock Plus on your web browser — like I do, despite earning a bit of money through ad revenue (is that hypocritical?) — it’s easy to gloss over. I wouldn’t argue that an increase in ads hurts content. But when the content becomes geared towards advertising; when advertising finds it’s way into content (and not just ad spaces, sidebars, etc.), that’s when ya lost (C) Souls of Mischief.
3. “Will the fact that ?suits? are beholden to the bottom line, and don?t get building community, perpetually marry them to page views as a metric?”
As long as they’re beholden to the bottom line, they’ll continue to latch on to whatever produces the best monetary results. The day page views becomes secondary to new alternatives, they’ll latch onto that with the quickness, I’d expect.
4. “Where is the music blog for alternative (rock + Boombap + hip hop) cats that HAS community, new material daily, and is more beholden to artists + their fans than a corporation and ain?t misogynistic as shit?”
No answer, but I’m interested in hearing about the misogyny you speak of. Are you referring to the site itself or the community, or both?
5. ” Do you go to Okayplayer? If so why?”
Boxden >
😀
Best,
I