I’m pretty disappointed in the music blogging world right now. It seems like everyone that’s running a music blog has lost their vision. We started these websites for the artists, helping them to grow and succeed, fueling our own sites’ growth in return. However, it has simply become a dog-eat-dog world where blogs could care less about the artists, and more about beating other websites. These days, it’s all about who can get the most traffic, who can post songs first, who can get more fans. Bigger is better in this industry, and every other college music blog out there is doing whatever it takes to expand their reach.
I can tell you all, from the inside of this industry, that there is little to no sense of camaraderie among us bloggers. We see other blogs as our competition, and we have no desire to work with them or even acknowledge their presence. I don’t claim to be above this – we’re all in this one together. Case in point:
Today we sponsored New Linen’s new mixtape, along with Fresh New Tracks. We recognized FNT as co-sponsors, and put the album art on our site with their logo in tact. They published the same mixtape, but oddly our logo is missing. Our logo was clearly, and poorly, photoshopped off the album artwork. This isn’t the first time this has happened to The Kollection, and I’m certain it won’t be the last.
So I pose this question to other bloggers: why are we fighting, tooth and nail, to win over our visitors? When did we stop caring about the music and more about our Facebook fan count? Fresh New Tracks – I’m calling you out. Why did you take our logo off the tape? Are you worried that a few visitors might come to The Kollection? That they might like what they see, or that they’d find some music that you didn’t post?
It’s an interesting thought that every blog has its own style, feel, and community, yet we’re so worried about what every other website is doing. I’m not worried about Kollectors finding Fresh New Tracks and losing them forever. If someone is a fan of The Kollection, it’s for a reason – whether it’s the music we post, our design, our features…whatever. So what if they go to another blog to get music that we decided not to post? It’s the last of my worries – right now I’m focused on making The Kollection the best website that fits the needs of our users.
Fresh New Tracks – you guys need to do the same. If you’re worried about your fans seeing our logo on an album artwork and leaving your site forever, then that speaks volumes to the kind of work you are doing. My advice would be to stop focusing on what we’re doing at The Kollection, and start focusing on building your site to the point that you don’t consider me your competition.
I’m not here to say that every blogger needs to link to each other and start a superficial relationship to make everyone feel good. I’m saying that as bloggers, we need to show some respect to the artists and to each other. We have ALL worked very hard to get to the point that we are able to get our logos on mixtape artwork – and it makes me sick to see that your distrust, your fear, or your dislike towards The K means you have to deface New Linen’s album art to hide us from your visitors.
I’ll leave every blogger out there with this: Stop focusing on what other blogs are doing. If you’re worried about losing your visitors to another website, it’s a strong sign that you’re lacking features and stickiness. Once you build your blog into a self-sustaining culture and community, that’s when you can stop wasting your time photoshopping your competition out of the picture.
Update: Good Music All Day just decided to crop both sponsors out. My point has been made.
My experience with music blogs started with the K, and I haven’t found a site that does it as well. Keep up the good work and the future of this site is bright with you and the rest of your staff behind it.
Well said Sir. Well said.
Dude I completely agree, but the music industry is shady and bloggers are only a tiny part of it. My blog, BeforeBigs.com had plans to collaborate with 10 other bloggers on our own XXL Freshman 11 list featuring completely new up-and-coming hip-hop acts like Machine Gun Kelly, The Dean’s List.
Point is, it fell through because I spoke with management that represented around half the acts on our Freshman list because I wanted to see about exclusive material. They promised they had a studio ready by a certain date and could see about some of the artists recording some new stuff. While they said that, they started planning a college music industry showcase in NYC and decided our blogs were too small! Blogs like P&P, Sunset In The Rearview and MostlyJunkFood being among the list of blogs considered “too small”. This management then said they were going to put out their own mixtape and said that we should let them know if we want tickets to this event where they were going to introduce the mixtape!
And I’m sure other bloggers have experienced getting shafted on press passes where you ask for 2 or 3 and end up getting 1 at the last minute (happened to me for a Mickey Avalon/Shinobi Ninja). The music industry is dog-eat-dog and I love that you wrote an article about a small part of it being dicks rather than networking to help each other with brand recognition, increased site traffic. It seems much easier for bloggers to compete but collaborating and overall networking is what’s key in this industry. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
Brian, very well said. It was pretty shocking to see that happen in both cases. Of course i’m happy FNT and GMAD posted the tape along with The Kollection, but there is no reason to crop out or photoshop album art. I asked GMAD to co-sponsor too and got no response. They had the chance and didnt take so why take away from your blog? I love the professional nature of the Kollection, it’s not solely about fans, always looking to improve, and helps support growing artists like us, New Linen. Keep doing your thing Brian, you are on track to have something even bigger then it already is.
Thanks for all the support,
-Tim Pici
-New Linen
Didn’t this issue come up a few months ago with the release of The Dean’s List album when it was you that removed everyone else’s logos from the album art?
You remove other sites’ logos all the time from mixtape cover art. You and your gang are a bunch of hypocrites who NEVER give credit to where it is due. You talk this innocent game after you’ve been the problem since you started blogging.
Why are you guys always heating on GMAD? Completely unnecessary. I’m a fan of multiple sites not just one so you posting this whole post kinda is hypocritical. Just my opinion though. And before you go off on all the other sites… you took the GMAD logo off of Aer’s mixtape ‘The Reach’ http://thekollection.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/05/The-Reach.jpeg
“I’ll leave every blogger out there with this: Stop focusing on what other blogs are doing. If you’re worried about losing your visitors to another website, it’s a strong sign that you’re lacking features and stickiness. ”
Damn, it looks like you are kinda worried about not GETTING your visitors from another website.
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Haastradamus – yes, and we fixed the issue within an hour or two. Mistake duly noted.
As I said: “I don’t claim to be above this – we’re all in this one together.” – I’m not playing an innocent game. I’m trying to point out a problem in this industry that needs to be address. It’s taking the guts to do it publicly, rather than anonymously like yourself, that sets us apart.
If you can show me where I’ve removed another site’s logo, please give me a heads up. I’m not aware of this happening before – see below.
Jerry – ‘always heating on GMAD?’ – I guess I don’t know when we’ve ever mentioned a distaste for their site. I respect what Tim has done with GMAD and the way their site has grown. However, I do have to counter your claim of hypocrisy. If you Google Image search ‘The Reach Aer’ 90% of the images that come up are the original album artwork WITHOUT GMAD’s logo. We never took anything off, we just chose to use the original artwork. There is a difference.
In regards to your second point – I’m very happy with the way The Kollection has grown in the past 13 months. I don’t think that even having our logo on mixtape art is going to send visitors from other sites – the point is that FNT very blatantly photoshopped us out of the picture, and GMAD very blatantly cropped both sponsors out. It’s a disrespect to New Linen, most of all, and the sponsors second.
Brian, I don’t think you could have said it better. This whole situation in the blogging world is sad. It isn’t just about removing logo’s from mixtape covers, but simply about RESPECT. Respect for other blogs, Respect for the visitors, and Respect for the artists and their music.
For the most part, all college music blogs such as The Kollection, Fresh New Tracks, And Good Music All Day (I know there are many more) post similar music. But you can compare that to Coke & Pepsi. On paper they are basically made of the same stuff but most people only drink one of them. That is because there are things that make them unique such as the taste. Now back to blogging. FNT is different than GMAD which is different than The Kollection. I’m not going to go into which is better because that is up to every individual. Although all three of these blogs post similar and in many cases the same music, they are very different and all have there own following. These blogs need to respect each other and work together rather than remove logos because they are scared of losing visitors. If all three of these blogs and every other music blog focus on promoting music and respecting other blogs and the artists, all of their visitors will increase and they all can turn into things much bigger. But these little acts of blatant disrespect don’t help anyone. I respect how Brian agrees that he is part of this group that needs to change. It takes a lot to go out and call out other blogs and call out yourself at the same time. If these blogs respect each other and the music, they will not have to worry about visitors.
Damn, Ya’ll need to chill the fuck out. Brian never said, that The K was perfect. He even admits his mistakes, he was just simply pointing out that this kind of competition is terrible and needs to stop. Getting on his case about previous mistakes isn’t going to help. Keeping future posts honest on all blogs is the only real solution.
Didnt you guys do that with the Deans List mixtape ? ……… Literally take down all of the sponsors off that you could …. tis tis tis .
Yeah Sam, we did. A mistake for sure, but we corrected ourselves within a few hours.
This is very well written and I can relate. I’ve seen artists do similar things, but the music gets heard regardless and that was the goal to begin with. All you can do is take what you’ve learned and continue building.
Having read through all of this after my initial comments here and on Facebook, I will say that I follow a variety of music blogs like the K, FNT, GMAD, Find New Jams, and several others. The one really big difference between the K and the rest? I can actually talk to Brian about things that are going on with the site and music in general. He’s very active on Facebook, and, as you can see, very active here as well. That’s a really nice tool to have, direct and honest contact with the man in charge.
I agree with conor. getting direct info and the inside scoop on the goings on of the kollection is a massive plus. As with most everyone else I visit a lot of music blogs. but seeing the way the kollection has developed since i first came across it is very cool. the kollection is one of the slickest looking and most easily accessible ive come across. a bit of competition never hurt anyone but your right the the underhandedness is fairly unwarranted
I agree with Brian. There shouldn’t be a war between blogs. it would be beneficial to all the parties to look more into co-op projects. That way everybody wins. Especially the artist. And that’s why we are here in the first place. As for me, The K is my first choice when it come to fresh music because of Brian’s interest in his audience and how much he and his crew dedicate themselves to US- the readers. I don’t see any other blog responding personally to emails/posts. Thank you K.
Let me just say I LOVE the music on this site. The coolest thing about it is the free flowing ideas and creativity. Not all blogs are perfect, that’s for sure. But anything that increases awareness of any music that’s not the standard Top 40 is OK with me. The more creativity that is nourished, the better.
Keep the fresh tracks coming…
I love how you all say “blah blah blah the artist, it’s about the music,” yet, 97% of all music blogs (especially “college blogs”) offer free downloads of music that is not meant to be freely distributed. If you want to be all righteous and shit, start with a business that’s built on actual sustainable professional values.
And – I’m not talking about remixes and creative commons work being offered for free, I’m talking about straight up distributing tracks that are in iTunes and Beatport for purchase. As this industry matures, I can guarantee you that profitable ad networks will be pulling you from their pools as they couple with record labels. And, in case you haven’t seen it, there’s already a government “blacklist” for blogs hosting copyrighted content.
Adam, you make a half-baked argument. There are blogs that do post lots of copyrighted material, but for the most part, the music that we, as blogs, release is distributed for free by the artist themselves.
When a blog helps an up and comer get thousands of plays in a single day, they are happy to give us the rights to post their music.
Are these privileges abused? Maybe so. At that point it’s up to the audio host (hulkshare, mediafire, soundcloud) to handle and process copyright disputes. Most of those three companies do a very good job at keeping everyone honest.
you guys did yours right though. In terms of design its clean and exactly what people want a nice description and a link to the song. The download feature is also great! Its just so well organized though which is a winner.
blogs crop out each other because do you really want to advertise your competition? lets face it we all try to be friends but what it comes down to is who wants to be number 1. time to grow up peter pan. its a cruel world, embrace it or get out of the way