19 August 2010

The UK music industry is at crisis point. When last year’s album releases were the best ever but few ever hit the headines or airwaves, and Q’s editor has just blamed record companies for its dramatic readership decline, you just know something is dramatically wrong. Here’s another sign: a major PR company called is entrusted with sorting out press accreditation for a major music festival and fails to provide an excellent media outlet providing radio, online and digital magazine coverage with accreditation (with no reason given). Instead it seems like the agency accredited ‘old friends’, big name players and a bunch of photography agencies whose images are taken for profit and little used. It may have even bowed to pressure from other more powerful media outlets fearful of how well the job was being done… Listen to BBC radio and you’ll hear the same old mainstream pop garbage day-in, day-out presented by the most untalented and unknowing individuals whose entire vocabulary consists of the words of ‘lovin’ it’, ‘awesome’, ‘incredible’ and ‘brilliant.’

Then a PR company sending information through proudly proclaiming that Fearne Cotton (along with other poor and overpaid BBC presenters) loves the record that they are trying to plug, and by implication we should love it too. Don’t these stupid people realise that as soon as this garbage is received by us it’s tossed? NME tries another more major revamp and its readership figures continue to decline - but faster than ever. I won’t even mention UK award winners… And while all this and other shite takes place, the most talented musicians and their music are starved of publicity, media recognition and income.

And it’s getting worse by the day.

Take the love of music streaming by the industry… Today you can listen to a whole album without having to buy it, and generally don’t. Amazon sold the brand new Arcade Fire album in its week of release for $3.99. I actually purchased a sealed and original CD off Ebay for the grand total of £2 including postage. Arcade Fire went straight to number 1 in the albums chart with sales of 61,000 and then dropped in the second week to number 2 with sales of 25,000 (Eminem went back to number 1). Prince and Carly Simon gave away hard-copy, brand new albums through national newspapers when fans had already purchased them for hard-earned cash - so much for looking after fans…

Play it safe, go with the highest spent hype and where the ‘benefits’ lie… What a friggin’ mess, and each of these component problems and more are driving great music down the drain. Hell, we can’t even score at Eurovision!Passion, sincerity and integrity has disappeared from large parts of the music industry - the parts that are supposed to tell us what’s best of the new and old. Is it by doing precisely this, that Shake’s readership continues to grow and expand its visitor base to 46 countries. We like to think so after sticking to our guns without fear or favour for the past ten years. It’s time for others to stick their heads above the parapet, go with musical instinct and to tell the truth. It’s what the music-loving public need and want.

The Q editor suggested that record companies are not releasing enough good music, and because of this Q circulation had dropped alarmingly. We have news for you Mr Editor, there is great music out there but your people are too blind to see, too deaf to hear . So, if it’s not the lack of great music that’s causing your steady demise, what is it? Perhaps it’s things like your decision to front an issue of Q with Cheryl Cole… Q and other magazines are failing because they are becoming increasingly irrelevant - and that’s the simple truth of it.