Musical Notes by Bob Duskis: Why we Blog

I remember vividly the first time I heard the term “blog”. My business partner Pat Berry brought up the then relatively new phenomenon in a Six Degrees marketing meeting.

“Have you guys been hearing about these on line political blogs that people are talking about?” he asked us all.

Not only had I not heard about blogs, but the word sounded suspiciously like some unpleasant bodily function (“I ate something bad last night that made me blog”) or an altered state of mind (“man, I had so much to drink last night, I was completely blogged).

In the years since Pat’s question was met with blank stares, blogging has become an international phenomenon. What started primarily as a new on line journalistic outlet has morphed into a ubiquitous out pouring of “net chatter” about every possible subject under the sun. It seems like everyone with access to a computer is publishing their every thought and opinion for the entertainment of an often imagined community that has been dubbed, the “global blog-sphere.” Let’s face it, chances are good that you have a blog or you know someone who does.

These days there are blogs about food, blogs about books, blogs about knitting and of course a seemingly infinite number of blogs about music. Music blogs have bred like bunnies across the net. These days you can read about everything from pre-war blues to classic disco and often download free tracks as well. One could argue that the best music blogs have replaced radio as a means of discovering new music. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing has become largely irrelevant. It just is. It’s part of the ever-changing landscape that makes up the music industry in 2008. I tend to think that any time people are so passionate about music they want to get on a soap box and trumpet their latest find or talk about some long out of print classic, it’s generally a positive phenomenon.

So does the world really need another record company sponsored blog? Sure, why the heck not. If you like our label and the kind of genre-defying philosophy we espouse, this is probably as good a way as any for us to keep in contact with you on a regular basis, get you some cool free music and hopefully turn you on to some things that you might not hear about in other ways.

It’s an exceedingly whacky time to be working in the music business and for my part I hope to share in this column some of the “behind the scenes” madness that we experience everyday. I’ll try my hardest to keep it entertaining and I have no doubts that you’ll let me know if I don’t. In fact, we’d love to make this whole thing as interactive as possible, so we welcome any questions, comments and requests that you might have. Don’t think of it as homework, think of it as a dialogue.

So here we go, without further preamble, let’s make some noize.