Ok, so I was once upon a time a fairly proflific music journalist, writing for publications like City Life, ITV.com, Flux Magazine, skiddle.com, and even The Guardian, now and then.
In that time I had the honor of interviewing & writing about artists including Frank Turner, Professor Green, Doves, High Contrast, Elbow, Iamkloot, Curtis Mayfield, Gaslight Anthem, Muse, and many more. It was a blast while it lasted, although eventually, the world of the internet gradually reduced paid writing opportunities further and further, so that there are very few ways to get paid as music writer these days.
Beginning in the late 90s writing for Flux Magazine, I attended a lot of club nights and gigs, covering the indie music scene and dance scene of the time, before moving to London to work for Carlton's The Base (Now itv.com).
Returning to Manchester, I continued working with City Life to cover the arts before its closure in 2005. I picked up music writing a few years later for Skiddle.com, covering quite a few great artists in everything from drum n bass to some of the better indie rock bands of the era. After giving a few honorable attempts at writing for bigger publications I realised that the jig was truly up.
The shelves newsagents used to be packed with magazines, including a huge section on music. As these gradually disappeared, replaced by blogs written by unpaid, but passionate amateurs, the market for producing this type of content became essentially an unpaid gig. And while the internet has opened up the potential of music in so many ways, creating access for artists, and listeners to find one another, it has also a lot of money out of the business and put it in the hands of tech companies, who charge for content create by others, either through advertising, hardware sales, or monthly subscriptions - of which they keep the lion's share through onerous contracts.
I believe there are great opportunities to create content these days, and with young vloggers creating amazing, detailed and passionate features about the history of music on Youtube, for example, entrepreneurial minds are finding a way to monetise great content. For me, though, I think the journey ended a few years ago when I realised I would never be able to make a living from writing. For a few years I did, and for many, it was all I ever wanted to do.
I may decide to come back, of course, and accept the new status quo, and return to writing about music, just for the love of it. Which is what I did recently when I did a review of the recent Glastonbury 2019 for God Is In the TV. The music scene I began with has changed so music, moving much further towards grime and hip hop. I personally loved music like this from a young age, alongside the guitar based indie rock that was popular in Manchester at the time. And it now it looks like my tastes were ahead of their time, as this is what is increasingly dominating festival line-ups as music trends towards innovation and away from the retro sound that dominated so much in the 90s with Britpop, and Grunge.
In that time I had the honor of interviewing & writing about artists including Frank Turner, Professor Green, Doves, High Contrast, Elbow, Iamkloot, Curtis Mayfield, Gaslight Anthem, Muse, and many more. It was a blast while it lasted, although eventually, the world of the internet gradually reduced paid writing opportunities further and further, so that there are very few ways to get paid as music writer these days.
Beginning in the late 90s writing for Flux Magazine, I attended a lot of club nights and gigs, covering the indie music scene and dance scene of the time, before moving to London to work for Carlton's The Base (Now itv.com).
Returning to Manchester, I continued working with City Life to cover the arts before its closure in 2005. I picked up music writing a few years later for Skiddle.com, covering quite a few great artists in everything from drum n bass to some of the better indie rock bands of the era. After giving a few honorable attempts at writing for bigger publications I realised that the jig was truly up.
The shelves newsagents used to be packed with magazines, including a huge section on music. As these gradually disappeared, replaced by blogs written by unpaid, but passionate amateurs, the market for producing this type of content became essentially an unpaid gig. And while the internet has opened up the potential of music in so many ways, creating access for artists, and listeners to find one another, it has also a lot of money out of the business and put it in the hands of tech companies, who charge for content create by others, either through advertising, hardware sales, or monthly subscriptions - of which they keep the lion's share through onerous contracts.
I believe there are great opportunities to create content these days, and with young vloggers creating amazing, detailed and passionate features about the history of music on Youtube, for example, entrepreneurial minds are finding a way to monetise great content. For me, though, I think the journey ended a few years ago when I realised I would never be able to make a living from writing. For a few years I did, and for many, it was all I ever wanted to do.
I may decide to come back, of course, and accept the new status quo, and return to writing about music, just for the love of it. Which is what I did recently when I did a review of the recent Glastonbury 2019 for God Is In the TV. The music scene I began with has changed so music, moving much further towards grime and hip hop. I personally loved music like this from a young age, alongside the guitar based indie rock that was popular in Manchester at the time. And it now it looks like my tastes were ahead of their time, as this is what is increasingly dominating festival line-ups as music trends towards innovation and away from the retro sound that dominated so much in the 90s with Britpop, and Grunge.
