Music hacks playing catch-up with technological revolution

REVOLVER:AMID ALL the coverage about the decline of the music industry, the article you've never actually read is the one about the slow, steady decline of music journalism as we now know it. [Not in The Ticket, of course – Ed] All those features about how new technology has made this and that aspect of the music industry redundant always seem to omit the crucial point that music journalism is also up against the wall.

Music’s digital revolution isn’t discriminatory. The job of music journos has changed, but there are many still clinging to the wreckage. It’s about time for a cull, not least because the overwhelming trend now is for the artist to develop a direct relationship with fans (and their wallets), bypassing anything that might interfere with that compact.

In ye olde days the music journalist operated as a type of gatekeeper. New releases would be weighed up, pronounced upon and the reader would possibly take this into account when planning their purchase.

With a whole generation now grabbing their music for free, that function has diminished. But the exponential growth in the app industry will entail a reshaping and restructuring of music journalism.

The big development this year is how every song will become an app. You will have quick, easy and direct access to your music. And it won’t just be the song – the app will be bundled with biographies/ discographies, merchandise, tour dates, news, and whatever else can fit. There will be links to all the big social networking sites, and the app tell the people behind it who exactly is buying their work or registering an interest.

Now that the smartphone has reached critical mass, all the big research and development money is going into apps. The MP3 player will become like those old Walkmans and all will be in the cloud.

But will music journalism hitch a lift? The technological tea-leaf readers have it that music journalism should live on the same device on which we listen to our music: phone, computer, tablet.

What better way to accept or reject a particular reviewer but by listening to a track or album at the same time you’re reading the review. There’s already talk of a Pitchfork player app – great news for all who like polysyllabic doggerel from indie fascists.

Some bigger media players are already close to unveiling specially designed software, apps and plug-ins for the migration to smartphones/iPad style devices.

With everyone now having instantaneous access to musical content, the music journalist is operating on a more level playing field – and, these days, any 14-year-old probably has the tech smarts to get hold of a preview copy of an album before the hack.

For a peak of how the whole “every song as an app” change will look, go to songpier.com and see it in its earliest form.

Mixed bag

* The two most in-demand musicians this week are young Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic, cellists from Croatia who are mulling huge offers from record companies thanks to just one song – their awesome with a capital A duelling cellos version of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. It really is something; catch it on YouTube.

* Just when we thought we had safely dispensed them to the margins of reality TV shows, fitness videos and brutal solo efforts, the GHD and cheap mascara mind hive that is Girls Aloud (below) have announced a comeback for next year. Good idea: it really worked well for The Spice Girls and All Saints.

bboyd@irishtimes.com