I Chatted To A Few PRs About Reviews
Thought I'd take the conversation Shawn started a little further
Welcome back to Music Is The Answer. We’re on the home straight now, 2025 is just a few weeks away and seeing Christmas goods for sale in supermarkets feels more appropriate than it did back in late August (yes, my local Sainsbury’s had mince pies and other Christmas stuff on its shelves that early!). It’s been over a month since my last newsletter already, I have no idea where that time has gone but I’m pleased to be back on it with this latest edition.
One of my ideas for the newsletter is to bring more of a magazine-style approach to the pieces I write. I have years and years (and years) of experience writing articles, features and the like, and I enjoy the process of putting multi-voice pieces together. So the main event in this edition is a piece I’ve written about the relevance of reviews. This was totally inspired by Shawn Reynaldo’s recent musings in his newsletter First Floor, so big up to you Shawn for raising such an important issue and thankyou for sparking the much needed discussion.
I’m also including my round up of techno reviews (plus a mix of all the tunes I’ve reviewed) as part of my ongoing commitment to supporting new music.
So have a read and please feel free to add your views to the discussion. I’m particularly keen to hear any ideas for solutions, and potential new ways of showcasing, supporting and critiquing new music releases.
And make sure you go and read my reviews/listen to the mix I recorded….
Reviews: Some Thoughts & Insights
My Experience…
Before I get into this piece properly, I wanted to share my own experience with music reviews. Some of my earliest ever published writing was centred around reviewing music releases; At Front magazine, while on work experience in 2003, I reviewed Ed Rush & Optical’s Travel The Galaxy and a few other LPs. Later on, when I shifted into writing about electronic music as my actual beat, reviews were my entry point to paid work and the catalyst behind connecting with publications like Resident Advisor and Ibiza Voice. Not only that, but they also led to getting copywriting work - with labels that liked how I wrote about their music, Franck Roger’s Real Tone, among them.
Back then, around 12 years ago, reviews were a big deal - especially getting a decent one from RA. Some artists would even share a 3/5 review from RA, such was the prestige of having them write about your music, even if it was only borderline positive. I used to love reading reviews, especially RA and Pitchfork’s critiques - from a journalistic perspective, the way they described music on those sites was very inspiring to me. However, to be frank, I’ve never been one to read music reviews for the purpose of seeking out music recommendations. It was mostly to observe how other writers describe music. RA were always strict with me when it came to how I wrote my reviews, which I appreciated a lot. It helped me stay away from cliché and push myself to be more expansive and original in how I gave my opinion.
I’ve appeared on a couple of panels relating to music criticism: one at ADE (which was actually my first ever panel appearance), titled “Does Music Criticism Matter in Electronic Music?” and moderated by the inimitable Todd Burns, who was Editor of RA at the time. Another took place at Sonic Visions in Luxembourg, titled “Writing About Music Is (Still) Like Dancing To Architecture”. Both touched on similar themes around the relevance of reviews and criticism in electronic music. I remember Todd playfully calling me out for only focusing on positive reviews - which is still my approach today.
At ADE, there was also an interesting discussion about whether we should even be reviewing music that is largely made for the purpose of being mixed by a DJ on a big system in a club - as opposed to listening to it on a pair of headphones, or home speakers, out of context. Some music is made purely for functionality, not to be dissected by any of us music journalists, and it will typically only really make sense when it’s played on a big system - and sometimes an average tune will sound amazing in the hands of a DJ who plays it at just the right time, mixed with just the right tracks… I wondered if there were any clubs out there I could approach with the idea of spending a few hours reviewing the tunes by playing them on their system, to get the full impact of the music in the environment it’s made for. I’m certain there was a producer, maybe Radio Slave, whose tune got a neggy RA review around that period and they called RA out saying it was just a DJ tool and not made to be dissected in a review. Not totally relevant to this particular discussion, but something I still think about often.
My role as Techno Editor at Mixmag was essentially “techno reviewer”, as I was on a monthly retainer to handle all of the techno write ups in each issue. I did my utmost to ensure the page had a good balance of music from established artists and lesser-known acts, across various shades of techno. Throughout my career in music, I’ve put a lot of energy into supporting everyone across the board, which was reflected in the page (I think). My seven year tenure as Techno Editor came to an end when Mixmag paused, and later discontinued, its print edition during the pandemic in 2020. By that point I was also compiling all the music I reviewed into a monthly mix, so anyone interested could hear the music a bit more in context, and Mixmag had been publishing the reviews on their website, too. Artists, PRs, managers and other people connected to the releases were always grateful for the coverage and I enjoyed being able to use the high-profile platform to shine a light on new music.
Not long after Mixmag went exclusively digital, I emailed them to ask what was happening with the reviews and they said they wouldn’t be doing them anymore. I offered to continue writing them for free, and, to make it as easy as possible, suggested that I could even have access to their content management system and upload them all myself. But, alas, it wasn’t to be. So I transferred my reviews to this very newsletter. My motivation was simply to keep supporting new techno music. I enjoyed the process and was well aware that, at that point in time at least, they were helpful for artists.
My commitment to reviews started to wane a little a couple of years ago, and I haven’t done any for quite a while now. Life took over, but I also noticed there was less engagement from artists when I shared my reviews on social media. I don’t see a lot of artists sharing reviews nowadays, which is a shame, as there are still a few of us putting our energy into critiquing new music. A bit of mutual support would be appreciated. Funnily enough, Jonas Stone, from EPM Music, who I interviewed for the piece below, also mentioned this when I spoke to him - “Labels and artists should post reviews of up and coming new releases. Not only does it highlight their new release but it also gives some love back to the publications that still run review sections,” he told me. Too right.
Off the back of this discussion, I’m going to resurrect my reviews and get back to supporting new music as much as I can. And this little bit of positive action threads into the following piece. Something that really hit home was the notion of everyone - publications, independent writers, influencers/influencer brands, DJs - using our individual platforms to curate, critique and/or recommend new music.
While, yes, the media landscape is very fragmented, we all have our own following (echo chambers?) and there’s nothing to stop us sharing our views on new music with the people that follow our pages… More on that below.
Read My Reviews + Listen To The Mix Here
Let’s Chat To The PRs
My immediate thought when I read Shawn’s newsletter piece was that I’d love to reach out to a bunch of PRs for their views on the reviews situation. It’s their job to have an acute knowledge of media trends, key platforms and to devise ways of generating publicity around music release, and to work closely with their clients to ensure they’re getting the best results from their campaigns. They experience all the pitfalls of the media landscape, while also hearing from artists directly about what it is they want and need from press coverage. In other words, they know a lot more than I do when it comes to how things have changed and how artists feel about reviews.
I know a lot of publicists work their absolute arses off, and it can often be a thankless task - getting hassle from clients on one hand and rejections from journos on the other - so I thought it was also be nice to make some space for them to give their input. (As an aside, I think publicists are well within their rights to charge high fees for their work - which is not the case for a lot of them. Same as journalists - we’re often the mouthpiece of this whole business and we get paid a pittance in comparison to a lot of the artists we support). I reached out to a range of PRs and, due to time constraints, sent most of them a selection of questions to answer via email. I also managed to get on the phone with Dean Muhsin, of Dispersion PR, to discuss the topic.
This quote that we’ve all seen doing the rounds - “More music is being released today (in a single day) than was released in the calendar year of 1989”, is a kind of catalyst behind the whole conversation. It originally came from Will Page, former Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music in a piece by Music Radar. Combine this with the fact that reviews pages have either shrunk in size or coverage has disappeared altogether and we have a starting point. How do we consolidate the loss of reviews space with the ever increasing amount of music that’s being released? And how do we implement conscious strategies to support new music, utilising all that’s at our disposal in the current media/social media landscape?
“The falling off of media platforms over the last 5-10 years is a constant hot topic,” Jamie Russell, of Hype Filter, told me. “When you start discussing the volume of music being released daily/weekly vs the amount of column space given to writing in general, it's not difficult to understand what we're up against.”
Reviews Still Have Value
The general consensus across all the PRs I spoke to was that reviews do still have value, even if it’s merely for the artist to feel some validation. “As a PR, I still read them regularly, however I am uncertain if they would make any impact to a press campaign from a commercial standpoint,” said Lucy St. John, Head of Publicity at Defected. “I do however think they provide a lot of validation and significance for artists.”
“Reviews are always still part of our campaign strategies, especially when it comes to big album projects. A big part of this is because for artists I think reviews from credible publications still add a great deal of validation for an artist, and it’s often cited as a goal when we are in the strategy phase of a project with an artist or their management for this reason,” she added.
“For the artist it means something special when a respected media source ‘gets’ what they were trying to achieve,” Lydia Laws, of LLPR, told me. In fact, Lydia’s experience is that artists value reviews even more now that there are less opportunities to have their music critiqued. As a creative, the notion of having my work validated is all too familiar. Radio and club plays are great, crowd reactions and social media shares too, but add in the mix having a respected voice understand and recommend your work, and an artist will feel encouraged. Summarised by Sharon Andrews of Shine PR, perfectly, “Validation for work well done warms the soul.”. Amen to that.
Something I’m keen to emphasise in this piece is that we’re all part of this thing - the industry, wider community, ecosystem, however you want to define it. We all have a role to play in keeping the energy of this thing alive, and if reviews (positive or negative) do nothing but stimulate creativity, then they still have value. It’s up to us, journalists, tastemakers, critics, to let the producers know that they’re doing well, or where they could improve. Accountability, honesty, pushing ourselves to be better and do better. It’s essential.
In the film industry we still see posters for new films with pull quotes from all of the most respected outlets. Film reviews sites are very popular - Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Empire etc - because, guess what, people often want to gauge whether it’s worth investing their time, energy and money into a piece of media. Why should it be any different with electronic music? Lydia highlighted this point, saying, “Brilliant pull quotes for socials, their bio, future PRs etc are especially gratifying!”
Carola Stoiber of PullProxy shared a recent example, which also brings this point home, “I just worked on the re-issue of Scan 7’s album Dark Territory on Tresor (which I worked on when I was at Tresor). The file we had for him was kept and the new label managers sent me the scans. There were also copies of the reviews written in 1996 about the album. This is historic documentation for the LP, which we can use now in the current press campaign.”
So, reviews can come in handy when we’re looking at promoting and marketing releases. Something that has become paramount for any artist or label that wants to stand out in the oversaturated marketplace. They may be less important, but they can still play a part in bolstering or complementing a marketing campaign.
But most of the world’s most popular artists and labels don’t really need reviews to sell their music or raise their profile. I recently heard about an artist who had to be convinced to do an Essential Mix because they knew they could easily put a mix out on their own channels and get millions of plays. Having that kind of press feedback will likely mean a lot more if you’re a lesser known artist. Not to say it doesn’t mean anything to everyone who has a big following, but it’s not as important. An artist with a huge, engaged following on their socials can push a new tune and get all the streams and sales they need just from their own channel. It’s this shift in influence from the dominance of the main electronic music platforms, to the artists themselves that has taken away some of the power of reviews.
So, what is the point of reviews? They still have some value, granted. Not as much cache as they once did, but they still mean something to some artists. Maybe it’s a case of focusing on the artists/labels who need support most? For journalists, PRs and their clients to be more intentional with reviews so that they can still be part of a wider publicity campaign… ?
Anyway, I’ll end this section with Lydia’s lovely insight.
“As a music lover, I still love to read reviews. I still think other people’s opinions, whether or not different from my own, deserve a place in media,” she said. “Two types of review I especially relate to are: the deep detailed kind that also cover the scene and cultural context of the music itself, e.g. Andrew Ryce’s Honey Dijon DJ-Kicks review where he talks about the concept of underground music in general too, or Madison Bloom’s Charlie XCX Brat review in this best albums list for Pitchfork, which gloriously reflects on an iconic Sex And The City moment; and secondly, short punchy ones e.g. DJ Mag Staff Picks or the original reviews pages. As a publicist, reviews are something I wish we still had more of, as artists, and surely music fans, still want these, and now the options are limited.”
Leveraging Social Media
Stating the obvious I know, but social media platforms are the dominant force when it comes to the dissemination and consumption of information today. There are a myriad ways that these outlets broadcast news, opinion, stories and info; video, audio, the written word, sometimes all of these combined in one post. How we can capitalise on the varied ways that these platforms allow us to communicate, I believe, is essential to how we move forward with music criticism.
“Five or six years ago, someone said that reviews aren't worth the hassle anymore, because now we've got premieres where people can just listen to stuff,” Dean told me. “Why aren't mags doing 160-word reviews on Twitter? It doesn't need to be a huge write up.” He then went on to explain that one of his favourite review sections was in Update, where they’d publish 60 reviews and each one would be two to three sentences.
Dean spoke to me about leveraging the social media space to publish reviews, especially for the established platforms, perhaps even creating new social media channels for different genres. These could be in a similar vein to existing pages, such as HATE, Techno And Chill, Sound of Techno or Techno Station, for example. We could have “Mixmag Techno, Mixmag House, or RA House, RA Techno”.
“You could go to labels and be like, ‘You know what, instead of spending that extra 200 quid on a really shit Meta advert, you can pay me to do a review of your latest release on my channel. You’ve got the budget for ads, why don't you come and do that with us?’,” Dean explained.
In an age where engagement metrics appear to impact editorial decision making, there’s a clear and present oversight which is: just because there’s not much engagement data, it doesn’t mean people haven’t seen the post. Simple to say, but, from my own personal experience (especially this year), the amount of people who see social media posts but don’t click “like” or comment, or share, is often far greater than we can imagine. Why is this important? It demonstrates that cutting review sections based on low engagement is unjustified and short-sighted. With the deluge of music that’s being released on a daily basis, having expert voices offer their critiques and recommendations is a way to ensure that people who buy, or stream, music get to the good stuff.
On that note, Dean also highlighted a need for personality-driven curation. There’s a shortage of in-house writers out there who are putting a stamp on their particular niche and doubling down on it. This not only gives more credence to their reviews and recommendations, but it also offers magazines the chance to have people on board who help drive the direction of their general reporting. For instance, Mixmag having section editors for different genres fed into its overall voice, with each editor contributing their genre expertise to the magazine’s direction and editorial content. Having a team comprised editors who are focused on specific genres means you have team members who can offer depth and nuance to the publication’s understanding and reporting of musical styles, artists and collectives. Out there in the social media world, this could equate to a writer building their engaged following via their specialist area, and using their channel to champion new releases - just as I did on my two pages when I was Techno Editor at Mixmag, for instance.
“DJs and writers are the people who should be going, ‘This is good. This is worth a look.’,” Dean said. “When I used to buy Update Magazine, there was a writer called Chris Blue, and I knew if he wrote something, I'd like that record. Now there's not enough range of writings that people can look at and go, ‘Oh, I trust that person’. You’ll find more of that kind of thing on Instagram and YouTube.”
He cites Maslow Unknown as an example of this. Though it’s a faceless platform, Maslow shares new music on a regular basis, spotlighting releases to his 69k+ followers on YouTube.
On that note, Jamie Russell highlighted S!lecta, as one of a number of heads who are showcasing new music on their social media channels. “I appreciate peeps like Silas who go to the effort to talk about music he loves to his audience,” he said. While low on the follower count, S!lecta’s account features a number of unboxing videos, where he opens new records and shares his positive views of them. The reviews are earnest, insightful and enthusiastic, as you’d expect from a music lover talking about his new music.
Lucy St. John mentioned Manu Naykene as someone who is also putting his stamp on the video recommendations space. “I think the video review space is definitely an area that will grow for releases, MANU is someone definitely thriving in this space that creators should look to,” she told me. I met Manu earlier this year and found his success inspiring. He currently has almost 240k followers on TikTok, 22.5k on YouTube and almost 116k on Instagram. His content merges reaction-style content with a review element, giving viewers an energetic appreciation of the music, while also sharing his positive insights and knowledge. Manu DJs, too and he shares mixes on his YouTube channel. The Afro sound has been huge this year, which has benefitted his channels massively, but his enthusiasm, experience and persona are what keep people coming back.
Though not strictly a reviews platform, DaMetalMessiah is another social media personality who has taken full advantage of Instagram’s features to become a respected voice. His attention to detail, thorough research and clear passion for the music he focuses on is contagious and has won the respect of thousands of followers across the music industry and the general public, too. His success also shows us that, when presented well, longer form social media posts can keep people engaged. Yeah, they’re not exactly 3,000-word essays, but his posts go into way more detail than most other channels and his followers lap it up. In fact, he is often praised for his depth of research and the amount of background info he shares.
It’s these types of voices that demonstrate how, despite the media fragmentation we’re all so aware of, it is still possible to 1) Establish a platform that people will pay attention to and 2) Utilise that platform to share new music.
“Curation is crucial, in the face of AI, in the face of Spotify, and in the face of this weird industry narrative that “Labels aren't important anymore” (which is total horseshit),” Dean said. “I want someone that I can trust. Someone whose reviews I can look out and go, ‘Oh yeah. I haven't heard this self-released thing on Bandcamp that otherwise would have been virtually impossible to find’.”
“There are a group of tastemakers who are doing it well. Their followers are focused in on a scene and a sound and these people are record buyers. That’s what’s it all about, right?” Sharon told me. “For me, with the music that I work with, there are some key radio shows that really matter, and really make people buy records. Radio is becoming the new magazine in many ways. Especially on shows where the presenter really knows how to handle the music. Their recommendations are priceless, and the knowledge they impart is gold. A good radio presenter can help listeners dream and make a personal connection with the artist, the music, and the label.”
Other Forms of Media Take Precendent
Sharon’s point there about radio leads me into a key part of this entire discussion; other forms of media have become more important. Radio is a big one. It always has been but now, with traditional written media usurped by socials, it seems have an even more powerful impact than it used to. In fact, every PR I spoke to highlighted radio as being something they focus on. What Sharon said about the additional influence of a good presenter was especially pertinent. A radio play on a popular show can reach millions and raise the profile of the music, and artist. But when you add the response of a presenter: sharing a story behind the music, some information about the artists or simply their enthusiastic response - it can really amplify the impact on the listener’s appreciation. In a similar way, a personality can also ignite the appreciation of a piece of music through their writing…
Jonas Stone at EPM Music pivoted the company quite some time ago from a traditional PR model to shift into the digital distribution lane. They handle rights management and playlist curation nowadays, stepping away from PR due to the way things have changed. “We pivoted from traditional PR many years ago. Our focus is on playlist pitching, radio and artists/DJs/ labels with playlists,” he told me.
Do radio plays even convert to record sales though? “An artist we worked with recently had a mix on Tom Ravenscroft's show a couple of months back. This is a big thing right? But we have no idea who listened?” Jamie Russell said. “Other than some likes on social media, there were no large amounts of new fans following the artist, according to his team. Quite a bizarre statistic I thought! So yeah, it raises a lot of other questions I think?” Does any media coverage convert to record sales? One to explore in another piece…
“I find myself drilling down on a core group of DJs in a closer more personal way. Also focusing more efforts on radio coverage,” said Sharon. “The opportunities on platforms for reviews and features has become slim, so I try to focus on the areas that have the greatest and most meaningful impact.”
The word meaningful was repeated throughout the answers I got from most of the PRs I spoke to. In years gone by, storytelling and getting to the heart of what an artist is about/what they represent wasn’t always at the forefront of media campaigns. Not to the extent it is now. Similarly, editors are looking for strong hooks to connect to the current zeitgeist a lot more now. Social and political themes are top of the list. There’s been a sea change in recent years as the world has become more attuned to narratives and their importance - especially when it comes to groups that have been underrepresented in the past. “For me, securing meaningful feature coverage and news gen in publications dedicated to producing impactful journalism will always be top of the list,” said Lucy. “We’ve shifted our strategy to cover more multimedia coverage e.g. video, social-first/takeovers, podcasts, mixes etc that can still offer compelling storytelling, while getting more attention online than traditional written pieces.”
“It’s just been a case of focusing more on the artist telling their own story in an interview or think piece - what the track/release means to them, why/how they wrote it,” Lydia also said.
This is why, I believe, part of the answer to making reviews more compelling lies in utilising social media, like Manu has, to provide engaging feedback on new music. What’s stopping anyone from starting a radio show or podcast that is dedicated purely to showcasing and critiquing new music? Yes, there are loads of “new music” shows and playlists already, but how many of those are offering a little more depth in the way of sharing their honest opinions on the music they’re showcasing? I’m sure they’re already out there, but maybe not getting as much as attention. (Please, if anyone can flag any up, it would be much appreciated).
“The interesting place where publications have been writing about more is larger think pieces or commentary on the scene as a whole or incidents that have affected it. In terms of press that has been the biggest area of growth for critical thinking across the electronic music scene,” Jonas said.
Lack of Resources
A general lack of resources is a big part of this discussion as well. Writing reviews for 30Euros a pop, like I did when I was Ibiza Voice, probably doesn’t seem very appealing to some writers. If I had the offer again, I wouldn’t rule out agreeing to a retainer for, say, a few hundred pounds per month to write a bunch of reviews. That is essentially what I did in my role at Mixmag. But, when faced with the idea of paying someone to write compelling features that will boost viewing figures versus paying someone to write reviews that probably won’t, I can understand why mags have redirected their attention.
Dean summarised this during our chat. “As a journalist, you're already putting in the hours, in terms of staying on top of listening to new stuff, right? So surely it will be better for Mixmag or whoever to come and say, ‘Look, we aren't going to pay you anything like we would do if you were writing a feature. But if we put you on a 300 quid a month retainer and we expect 20 reviews out of you and each one is just two lines’, then you’d be able to monetise some of the effort that you’re already making. There's a model in that. It really wouldn’t take much.”
“My biggest issue with reviews is I just feel like there should be more out there. And I also don't think that the cost of them needs to be that high,” he adds.
It’s not just that there’s less money and less platforms featuring reviews, but a lot of writers have also shifted away from them - or from music journalism altogether. This is a whole other topic, but, as a profession, music journalist can be tough and thankless. Finding second, or third, jobs to supplement their income, or leaving the vocation itself, means there are less of us out there. “Many outlets also stopped reviewing EPs, for example, or music releases in general and journalists also stopped working because they don’t get paid enough,” as Carola said to me.
“It is becoming harder and harder to get the bigger platforms to write reviews. The spots are limited, but in fairness to them, there’s so much music about. The sites are bombarded with requests and many of them are probably exhausted and are reassessing what their priorities are,” Sharon pondered.
“There are many people still writing reviews,” she added, explaining that there are still small blogs and independent platforms flying the flag for reviews. “Doing what I do my contacts are wide, so we can always find someone to write. It’s not always the big publications that people want, but there are many influencer sites and blogs that write well and have a focused following. These folks are writing some very thoughtful reviews.”
So, it’s not always a case of focusing on the more prominent platforms for review coverage and acknowledgement. When you dig a little deeper, as Sharon highlighted, you can find lesser-known platforms and blogs reviewing music. Similarly, the sheer number of Facebook groups created for the purpose of sharing and discussing music. Or Instagram pages that share older releases and how much engagement they get. I love Fergie’s page, for instance. He’s got such a positive and engaged community on there. Every time he shares a record from his collection, he provokes a broad response from his following. They share stories, reminisce, connect with one another or remind him of tunes he’d forgotten about. The way people engage with Manu’s post is also very passionate. So this element of connecting with an audience through solitary pieces of music (new or old) is a proven way to generate engagement. If that’s all the big platforms are concerned with, here’s proof that it can work very well.
As Dean pointed out, “Dance music is moving faster than ever. So therefore, there’s a strong argument for curation and having writers who understand the scene and understand music share their opinions and recommendations,” he said. “People are thinking too much about engagement and clicks - as a result, they're mistakenly concluding that the people aren't interested, When actually I think people are interested. Otherwise, why would we have so many super active Facebook group communities talking about genres? It's like we've gone back in time to the age of the forum, with these closed communities united around specific genres.”
The Lack of Honesty
Or should that be the fear of being honest? Excuse my nostalgic romanticising, but there was a time when music publications could be scathing, opinionated and sometimes downright savage, and people lapped it up. Now, I’m not saying it’s ok to be mean for the sake of entertainment, but there used to be less fear about expressing negative opinions or responding to a mediocre release with cutting criticism. I’m a fine one to talk with my “positive reviews only” policy, I know, but I think us lot in the dance music industry can sometimes be a little too nicey-nicey and fearful of ruffling feathers or upsetting people. When, behind-the-scenes, there can be a lot of bitching. We’ve become a bit too wary of outspoken honesty, in my opinion anyway. We can still be “one big family” but also share our criticism - in fact, the strongest and most progressive communities have honest communication at the core of their success. “Honest communication is a key factor in social cohesion because it builds trust, promotes cooperation, and fosters a sense of accountability and shared values,” says good old Google AI. This has been shared through numerous studies. So there.
One side to this is the money aspect. Everyone is connected to each other, often through some kind of business connection. Magazines take huge amounts of money from artists, labels and promoters to advertise their projects and events, or to place editorial content for them. Some Instagram channels charge for premieres and posts. We all know this goes on. I’ve had it myself, when I was once asked to “consider” putting an artist’s release in my reviews because they’d taken out a quarter page ad. Perhaps, for a lot of these platforms, there’s a fear that saying something negative about the very thing they’re advertising would mean the loss of that income stream? Being on the payroll of artists/labels/promoters can lead to less freedom of expression.
This threads back into the previous section about lack of resources. A lot of us need all the money we can get these days. Life isn’t certainly not getting any cheaper, which means some of us might be way more risk averse (or honesty averse should I say?) than before.
“On the whole it mostly feels like the art of critique is fading away,” said Jonas. “I remember when reviews used to be savage, especially when big artists delivered a mediocre release. Because everyone needs every income stream they can find these days, this can be seen as biting the hand that feeds. Publications are very wary of keeping labels on side for future advertising. Personally I miss that, as bad reviews were often hilarious but it’s probably not good for business.”
It might not be good for business, but we need to hold each other accountable. Especially the most prominent artists, labels and promoters. If something is shit, it’s shit and people need to be told so they can take a look, evaluate, learn from it and do better. I was listening to an old DJ EZ Freek FM show on YouTube yesterday and, at the end of the show (skip to 46mins 30ish), he has a little chat with the next DJ (Jazzy D). He asks him how his gig was the previous night, and Jazzy hesitates before saying, “Thumbs down”. EZ reacted with surprise saying, “Aren’t you worried the promoter might be listening?!” and Jazzy says, “Well, he needs to fix up!”. This kind of honest dialogue is necessary, because, sometimes, people need to be confronted with the truth of your experience. You can be matey with someone and still not like the EP they released. It’s ok, and shouldn’t come between you or cause a rift in your connection. If anything, it should bring you closer together.
Dean also touched on this, when he mentioned guest reviews. “I also really miss guest reviews. Remember Jockey Slut’s thing, where they used to blindfold them with bin bags? And it would be hilarious, right? Because you'd get Andy Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood, and they play them like some absolute asinine fucking pop house remix. And they’d just tear strips off it,” he told me. “I know why they've disappeared, because people would get accused of bullying and all this sort of stuff. The thing is, there’s a generation of dance music fans and readers who are now almost entirely reliant on three mags doing maybe three or four reviews a week, or social channels that are unfortunately either biased because they're asking for money for content, or the rare ones that are just passion projects.”
By tiptoeing around artists and labels, trying to keep them sweet for fear of losing contracts, or them not being our friends anymore, we enable them to keep pumping out mediocrity and cultivate a culture of sensitivity to negative criticism. As I said earlier, we’re all responsible for shaping our culture and bad reviews (even savage ones) have their place.
It’s Up To All Of Us To Create Change
Something I see happening in the world a lot, not just the music biz, but in society at large, is how we just passively adopt new ways of being. It may sound a bit off topic, but I read Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism a few years ago and he speaks a lot about the way we all just let smartphones into our lives without ever questioning their impact. We never stopped to take a good look at them and how they affect us. I don’t think I know a single person who uses their smartphone intentionally, or in a detached manner, like it’s a tool. They’ve just become part of our lives and it was only a few years down the line when we all started to question how they’re affecting us.
What’s this got to do with reviews? Thinking about this whole discussion, especially looking back at how things once were, you can trace the timeline of deterioration parallel to the arrival of smartphones, social media, streaming platforms and all the technology that has become part of everyday life. We’ve been so passive, and what I would like to see is some kickback, and a bit more ownership and responsibility around how we operate within the music industry. A big ask, I know.
We’ve gone from month-long album campaigns to surprise drops, or virtually no run up at all. Or multiple drops from the same artist on the same day. Of course, things shift with the availability of new technology - streaming platforms, I’m looking at you here - but the notion of building anticipation around a release can still have some relevance. As Dean highlighted when we spoke, people love anticipation and discovery, why else would the ID groups on Facebook and Reddit be so busy? Reviews would be part of that build up.
“It’s not just publications, but the music industry, full stop,” Dean said to me. “They're really, really good at sleepwalking into new eras. We've sleptwalked into an era of everyone saying that albums don't matter, right? We've sleepwalked into an era of people not paying for music. Even in the PR world we sleepwalked into a world where we allow labels to come to us and be like, ‘Well, we're going to do three single drops because that's the way we want to deliver to DSPs’. Despite the fact that we're saying journalists don't have the bandwidth for that.”
“If Mixmag or DJ Mag were like, ‘We're gonna do something groundbreaking, we’re gonna go back 20 years and make sure that we publish 50, 60, 70 reviews a month’. It would be such a big thing, I think the industry would react with such gusto,” he added.
I loved Carola’s take on the question of innovation in the reviews space. “Every writer who doesn’t copy and paste is innovating,” she said. “It’s work to sit down, listen deeply, to be engaged in the music, do research and write about it.”
“Substack is an innovating platform. We are also happy to support writers and platforms, support them for the work they do and build relations (again) to keep the scene alive. We all need each other,” she added.
Could some of the big guns have a rethink and consider redirecting some of their resources towards making more space for reviews? Or explore the use of social media more? Can all of you music journalists out there make some time to put together a bunch of reviews every month? Can PRs think a little more about new ways to share and critique music? I used to spend about a day and a half on my reviews - that included the time it took to gather up a load of new music, sit down and listen to it, then give my feedback. It’s not a huge amount of time and it can still make such a difference to so many people out there, many of whom I can imagine are struggling to get their music heard, and appreciated.
Ultimately, that is what matters to me most. Bringing it back to my own experience as a writer, something that totally invigorated and inspired me recently was having people tell me that they see what I’m doing and to keep going. So many of us work in isolation, sending our work out there into the public domain (or the ether, as it can often seem to be), trying to cut through the noise and shout the loudest about our work - or simply doing it quietly and hoping it will be heard, or seen, or felt. When someone validates your efforts, or at least gives you some feedback about what they didn’t like, it can give you a reason to carry on.
Let’s us all try to work together to put more effort into reviewing and supporting new music, there are so many artists out there that could do with some honest feedback and genuine validation.
Thanks to everyone who took time to contribute to this newsletter. I really appreciate your time, thoughts and energy. And big up to Shawn Reynaldo for sparking this whole thing in the first place.
Last one for the year now. See you all in 2025!