product placement within the written word - Collapse Board

Received the following email at editorial@collapseboard.com this morning.

Editorial Work

My name is XXXXXX and I run a publicity and advertising business based in Brisbane. My main goal is to provide indie bands, musicians, producers and emcees affordable promo packages. You can check out my website here.

I was wondering if you guys would be interested in doing some paid work for our clients and placing it on your site, whether it?s writing an EP review, a feature article, Q&A or just a one sentence review. If it sounds like something you?re interested in please let me know and tell me what it will cost.

I have a press release ready to go out by Monday (it?s Aussie hip hop, although most our clients are rock, indie bands) let me know if you?re keen.

Thanks for your time.

Further investigation throws up a website, complete with testimonials, that offers:

an affordable publicity & advertising campaign for upcoming bands, musicians, emcees & DJs?s in collaboration with Brisbane?s best Street Press, Blogs and Radio

(at $1,299 till December 2012)

So. I?m interested. Has this generous offer already been taken up by various writers and editors and DJs at Brisbane?s ?best Street Press, Blogs and Radio? and, if so, are they declaring a prior interest when it comes to featuring reviews of this PR company?s bands amid their ?editorial?, and if they?re not declaring a prior interest then why is that?

I?m also interested to know how many other press agents in Brisbane, and Australia, and further abroad, offer a similar ?service? to editors and writers: whether ethical considerations come into it at all, and whether they think that if the word spreads that any favourable reviews of their clients has been bought, word-f0r-word, this might well devalue the critical standing of their clients and lessen their chances of ever ?making it? in the music industry?

For example, are these comments about Brisbane band Love Like Hate (obtained via the above website) genuine enthusiastic critical opinion or cynical paid-for advertorial? It matters, don?t you think? And what was Brisbane street press title Time Off?s criteria for giving the band two features in its hallowed pages earlier this year?

??.there there is a beautifully serrated edge to the way the band approach pop?.a stunning release?? Neil Evans [Tone Deaf July 2012]

?Core songwriting duo Heather Cheketri and Sonja Ter Horst do direct, lyrically driven, dark, rootsy pop. With some dramatic twists. Picture them sitting on the kitchen floor with a beer and talking about how cool it would be if Tori Amos covered Springsteen?s Nebraska.? Chris Perran : Lowfly [Australian Collective and Record Label]

?The dulcet-punk musing of Love Like Hate are welcome arrivals on the Brisbane indie rock scene. With stormy confessional lyrics, and a dynamic blend of guitar, piano and drums, Love Like Hate deliver compelling live sets and a fresh sound reminiscent of early Hole, The Dresden Dolls ?.? Dr Jodie Taylor, author of Playing it Queer: Popular, Music, Identity and Queer World-making (Peter Lang 2012)

?Heather and Sonja put themselves under the spotlight, craving to shout out loud and let their own voices be heard on a musical rollercoaster, rather than mocking the latest, empty music trends.? Liam Wilson [Groundup Music]

?? it?s more the sort [of music] you turn up really loud when you?ve got the house to yourself and you?re lying on the lounge floor midway through a bottle of red.? Jennifer D [Vulture Magazine June 2012]

(I would talk about the website?s other featured band, Kooii, but sadly the link provided to their website doesn?t work.)

NOTE: One of the above quotes is from the band?s PR agent.

It?s not like this sort of payola doesn?t exist across all the entertainment industries ? the film industry is particularly blatant in the way it curries favour with press junkets to foreign cities; and the music industry pretty much exists on nepotism and largesse and free tickets and ?mateship?. It?s just this is really pretty fucking blatant: the equivalent of ?product placement? within the written, critical word. Legally, there?s probably nothing wrong with it, but, at a time when the concept of paid-for music journalism is taking a pounding like never before, it hardly needs its core integrity called into question.

Right now, 2012 and all that, I trust the comments of consumers on Amazon way more than I do the ?opinion? of critics in the music press, both street and mainstream?

ADDENDA:
I am genuinely interested (PhD research and all that) in whether this practice is becoming widespread across the music industry/street and mainstream press. Obviously, I?m familiar with the concept of advertorials (pages set aside specifically to sell product but designed to look like editorial), and obviously I?m familiar with the concept of payola in the form of free drinks/tickets/CDs/promo items/travel/hotels/etc etc, but this seems far more insidious and strikes right at the c0re of criticism itself. Comments from editors, PRs, writers and musicians gratefully received.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2012 at 9:37 am. It is filed under Everett True and tagged with Brisbane, Everett True, Groundup, Kooii, Love Like Hate, Music criticism, payola, street press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Source: http://www.collapseboard.com/everett-true/product-placement-within-the-written-word/

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