music journalism apocalypse

A few months ago, after much procrastinating and buying newsstand copies, I subscribed to JazzTimes and have been loving it. Having columnists Gary Giddins, Nat Hentoff and Nate Chinen in one place every month would have made the subscription worth it by itself. Except that now, according to an announcement from the publishers, they are becoming the latest in a string of music magazines to cease or suspend publication. Late last year it was No Depression, the elegant and always substantive bible of American roots music, which retrenched on the web after 12 years in print. Last month, Performing Songwriter, an iconic magazine that put the creative process and the DIY movement in the spotlight, folded its tent after 16 years of being independently owned and operated. Also recently, R&R, once a competitor and compliment to Billboard, was shuttered, leaving the industry without one of its most analytical sources of reporting. And Harp. And Blender. And the wonderful Paste recently had to put out an online tip jar to survive.

This rash of fatalities is not, of course, because people are less interested than they used to be in music or reading about new music. Rather it's a toxic confluence of recessions. 

The record business, which has supported much of the music mag ad base has been withering for nearly a decade. The print publishing business is flailing now that classified ads have migrated to the web and bloggers and news sharing has made music writing as free and free-flowing as mp3s. And then there's that larger recession that's got everything stuck in quicksand. 

But just because it's explainable doesn't mean it's any less agonizing to watch the very culture of music commentary and storytelling succumb to forces beyond its control. I also believe that it's going to be extremely difficult to get a new music business on its feet if some measure of dedicated expert opinion and reporting can't find platforms to spread the word. Social networking and music sharing can only go so far. Blogging by and large tends to wall off sub genres of music and sub communities of lifestyle groups, while traditional music journalism at its best has a shot at pushing some stuff under a reader's nose that they wouldn't have sought out on their own. It's similar to the crisis in news, where "The Daily Me" is replacing a daily broad view of the most important events in the world. And as I've said many times, music without back story, without context, doesn't amount to much beyond audio ice cream. Magazines like JazzTimes and Performing Songwriter and No Depression were how I became an informed music fan, and as a journalist they gave me outlets to write. But this isn't about how much harder it is to get a byline and get paid than it used  to be (and it was always hard). It's really a tragedy for the next generation of folks who'd love to dive into jazz or songwriting or roots and who have fewer well-edited resources to turn to.