MP3 Blogs Story On NPR

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Over the weekend, NPR's On The Media aired a short story about MP3 blogs which included interviews with myself, Sean from Said The Gramophone, and Elaine from Fruits Of Chaos. It's a pretty flattering piece (especially for me, since I get a ridiculous amount of credit for the trend and for "breaking" LCD Soundsystem), and very pro-MP3 blogging though ambivalent about the legality of it all. If you want to hear it, they have it archived on their site.

This marks the official beginning of mainstream media attention for MP3 blogs. It's kinda nice, but I'm also becoming paranoid about this. Thoughts?

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i'd call that ridiculous.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 3 May 2004 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The 'simulation of what a mp3 blog sounds like' is particularly offputting, what with the porn-groove behind it.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

If by offputting, you mean hilarious. "This makes me feel like I am living in a futuristic wasteland, where robots are our masters!"

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

That intro was their idea. They had us record some selections of our writing - I wasn't really into the idea, but I humored them. I'm the "robots are our masters" guy. I was talking about Mu's "Let's Get Sick."

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Excellent. Well done, Matthew.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

matthew, have you seen this (second review)?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I hadn't. That's a really cool shout out. Thanks, Michaelangelo!

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Please, let the name "Mp3-Jay" not catch on.

― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 3 May 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

why would "mp3-Jay" not catch on when it is clearly the greatest word ever?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 3 May 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

And it's the name of my new site!

Okay, not really. But it should be!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 May 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

What's an mp3 blog?

― Out of TheLoop, Monday, 3 May 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn, I didn't like the idea of recording my writing so I didn't. Guess I missed my chance for world-wide fame. Matthew: as far as I know you did pretty much start the trend, so congrats!

― Mystical Beast, Monday, 3 May 2004 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm almost certain that Gabba has been at this longer than I have, and my initial desire to start posting mp3s came from reading blogs by Jody Beth Rosen, Paul Cox, and Martin Pavlinic, who were all posting mp3s back around 2001 or so. Boom Selection was/is another big influence - I was reading them every day back in their 01/02 prime, and I picked up a lot from them.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a nice piece, Matthew.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 May 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Gabba guys weres posting mp3s on their site since at least summer 2002, and probably even way before that.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 3 May 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, that's what I figured. They were ahead of me by at least six or seven months.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Paul Cox ... who w(as) all posting mp3s back around 2001 or so

Paul got the idea from my blog, Just Joshin', which started posting MP3s in September 2001. I swiped this idea from Tom Ewing, so it seems odd that on his newish MP3 weblog, he credits New Flux as the inspiration, when from where I'm sitting, he's the catalyst that started it all.

― Vic Funk, Monday, 3 May 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

This is true. I'm a thief.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 3 May 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I wasn't in the loop back then - maybe Tom was referring to the format that I developed for myself rather than the simple act of having an mp3 post on a blog? I'm sure that people have been doing variations on that for years now.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Monday, 3 May 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I Love Music.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Monday, 3 May 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, i am an mp3jay! i am what i play...

― tricky disco, Monday, 3 May 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Matthew: you are right to be paranoid. widespread publicity is
not really what you need. before long the lawyers come knocking

regards,

squirl plise

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 04:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Re. the Seattle Weekly review linked to above: oh, cool, a mention for Troubled Diva as well. Thanks, Michaelangelo!

(I ripped, posted and wrote about nearly 140 MP3s on my blog between Spring 2002 and Summer 2003 - mostly hard-to-find tracks from old vinyl in my collection - but stopped just before the bandwagon started rolling in earnest. I still feel that a lot of those MP3s never quite reached the audience for which they were intended, but no matter.)

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 07:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I know that publicity isn't the best thing for this, but I cooperate with most recent requests for interviews and such because I realize that this stuff would eventually be written about whether I spoke to reporters or not. I'd rather take the opportunity to speak for myself if I get the chance. I always make a point to talk about how the record industry could potentially use mp3 blogging to its marketing advantage, and I try to stress that I would rather work with labels than against them.

Either way, more and more of what I post comes with permission from labels and artists, and it may eventually get to the point where almost everything I post is either approved by labels or so obscure that it is unlikely to be a problem. Also, I'm not sure how much longer I plan on doing this. I think there is a good chance that I'll end Fluxblog before this time next year. If problems come up, I'll just back out, because I really have no interest in fighting for this.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

end fluxblog?! :(

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Ending blogs is the new black.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Sporadic blog maintenance is the new wrist watch.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I don't plan on ending it right away. I may soon have a better, entirely legal outlet for doing a similar kind of thing, so once I have that option I think I'll just stop posting mp3s. I probably wouldn't shut down the blog (I'd still write in it, I'm sure), just the mp3 stuff.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I probably wouldn't shut down the blog (I'd still write in it, I'm sure), just the mp3 stuff.

Matt - you are losing your edge.

― ___ (___), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Matt - you are losing your edge.

Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

nothing makes any sense to me.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Saturday, 8 May 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

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