DISQUS

Lisa · 1 year ago

Haha, I've always had a love/hate relationship with the Hype Machine. It's a great music search engine/aggregator, but I do think it's making song great music into "3-day" fads.

Michael · 1 year ago

I didn't even think about the affects Hype Machine has in terms of the music industry. But its just like Napster/iTunes/Digital Radio... new services that have changed the scene forever and wont go away.

That said -- I absolutely love these little side-articles!

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Another good article Chris! I'm surprised some idiot hasn't left a comment saying something like "stick to posting about new music!!!!"

B · 1 year ago

Hypem has definitely given Remixes a new meaning/fanbase. And without it bands like MGMT and Vampire Weekend would have probably get lost in the sea of new music.

Indie rock would not be the same. It would be location based. With Hypem (and other services like it), bands like Justice can have GLOBAL audiences/fans.

Brandi · 1 year ago

Haha, does PMA really have to "test" the hype machine method? I'm sure you guys are pros at that already ;)

Alice · 1 year ago

Wow, Hype Machine DOES kill enjoyment of music! you have converted me.

Great article!!

jock la plonk · 1 year ago

but let's face it apart from vampire weekend and mgmt the mainly American blog scene sucks. The energy of a couple of year's back has disappeared to be replaced by careerists like the Hypem people. It's like any scene, it goes from underground and great to pop and shit.
It's really not that global either. Justice are an exception, normally its boring balding 30 plus bands on Merge. The stuff that gets picked up on now is really v
cliched blog fare. Little Boots for instance, who's kind of rubbish.
So you're debating a party that's over.

Bonnie · 1 year ago

Man, you're really depressing Jock.

Anthony · 1 year ago

If it wasn't for Hype Music, I wouldn't be reading this blog right now. It has opened me up to so many new and terrific music blogs.

That is a plus in my book.

Vanity · 1 year ago

Nice article.

Love your blog, I found it yesterday via hypem :)

Jeff · 1 year ago

great article! Interesting topic indeed. I suppose you just wanted to keep it to hype machine in this one, but I think it's particularly intriguing that this post is number 1 on elbo.ws right now haha

Randi Baron · 1 year ago

nice job! i'd say hypem is more threatening than elbo.ws, since elbo.ws lists posts & artists & mp3s in separate categories like if i just wanna read about an artist it's a lot easier.... whereas hypem just lists posts that mp3s are in. if you don't link mp3s in your blog when you're writing about them, well... you're screwed.

moral of hypem seems to be keep releasing more & more mp3s into blogs, which thereby kills the music industry. it's a pretty messed up circle.

that being said, i LOVE those sites :)

Half Note · 1 year ago

Great article, but I'm not sure I agree that Hypem is to blame for all that you mentioned. I think its a product of it.

Confusion · 1 year ago

I agree completely with Half Note. Hypem is a product of the music environment.

macky · 1 year ago

Hype Machine is a database of bloggers that have been granted permission from the artists and labels to promote their music. 90% of the music is not to full quality which is the positive to artists and record labels as this is only used for promotional use. Like mentioned in most blogs, if you like the music support the artist by visiting beatport, juno, or itunes and buy there music.

Bach · 1 year ago

It's not The Hype Machine's fault. I blame the youth and their "ADD"

Anyways, The Hype Machine is how I found this wonderful blog.

Looshis · 1 year ago

Same thing is happening in news. News blogs go online (with unchecked facts) and people have stopped buying newspapers. But studies show people only glance at the articles for the most part, and seldom click on the links to other sections. Whereas with newspapers there is more chance of you opening the paper and actually reading the content inside.

joshua · 1 year ago

Good article.

DK · 1 year ago

Nice article. I found your page via hype machine a few months ago. I book marked it right away and come back everyday.

Robin · 1 year ago

love the article.

I agree:
it kills singles

it speeds up the music, its scary that things get buried so fast

Randi Baron, B, Lisa

Don't agree:
kills albums - I buy albums anyway. real CDs. I only download albums if it has lots of hype and I really cannot get into it. This means I wouldnt have purchased it in the first place. By the time next album comes I am way more likely to buy it.

In general itunes has killed concept albums and me listening to them the whole way through.

It kills music - this just links back to the speed of music

anyway fantastic!

brennan · 1 year ago

robin-

unfortunately us cd buyin types are in the minority. although hypem is just a tool and can be used for good (research) or evil (disposable trend-tracking) it definitely lends itself to the latter with its '3 day' hotlist.

Bruno · 1 year ago

Good arcticle, thanks.

Lily Kane · 1 year ago

I'm pretty sure Hype M is on the evil side. They're not just a blog / mp3 aggregator based on hits and numbers-- they get $$$ to put certain blogs up top.
Actually not sure if that's evil or not, but it sure is misleading.

Smithey · 1 year ago

wow, that article basically defines my musical exp, i feel a little bad now, i love hypem....

Luis Tovar · 1 year ago

"they get $$$ to put certain blogs up top."

Oh, is that a fact?

Tart · 1 year ago

To assume that either mp3 blogs and file sharing (or people's use of the internet in any way, for that matter) has a negative effect on the music industry is simply ridiculous. Independent studies have shown that there is no causal relationship between the increase of music online and the decrease of music sales in traditional markets. End of story. Your only source on this is a quote from someone within the music industry itself. I suggest you do more research on the subject. Email me for sources if you need them.

Likewise, to assume that the majority or "the base" of music fans use the Hype machine and therefore are influenced by it is equally ridiculous. Even to assume that the bulk of music fans fill their ipods with singles merits a solid source of reference, where is it? Let's be careful to not assume that we the super geeks, are the norm, eh?

Yes, the Hypem has changed the way we use music. Yes it's altered our focus on singles v. albums but I tend to think that's more a product of a generational shift, as you say, rather than something caused by Hypem. And as for music writing... there's plenty of us who write about music and don't give a damn about Hypem, don't write with it in mind, aren't listed on it, and have a small and faithful readership of friends who dig what we do nonetheless.

Thanks for a thought-provoking article!

kzap · 1 year ago

Thought provoking it is. For me, I know what I like and don't have to listen to someone's personal podcast or read any critic-blogger-citizen-journalist wanna-be music nerd's opinion for that matter (no offense). It is just about the music for me and fine-tuning my tastes and it goes great with last.fm as they have been advertising it lately! Collusion!!! hah makes for a better overall product and business model. Oil of the 21st century information and intellectual property will be says I, ftw!

kzap · 1 year ago

Speaking of collusion btw, if you're techie enough you don't even have to leave any hypem page to download songs use FlashGot or some similiar downloader on FireFox or if you're as nerdy as you think you are get SongBird. Granted, they're not tagged, but you get the song and tagging's up to you or another community, MusicBrainz. I wonder who pays them to get featured in their iTunes killer browser???

Taylor McKnight · 1 year ago

Two quick notes:
1) "they get $$$ to put certain blogs up top." is certainly not true. Every single blog in our system is on a level playing field.
2) We have the Popular page showing only the last 3 days of tracks is our effort to highlight interesting and new tracks. If it was an ongoing thing you'd most likely find the usual suspects on top (Coldplay, Radiohead, etc etc). Not to say you don't find these on the current Popular page, but it gives other songs a fighting chance (Teki Latex is #1 right now).
For a depressing example of how the "all time" popular tracks look check out Last.FM's top tracks of 2008: http://www.last.fm/bestof/2008/track/10
(6 of them are Coldplay, 4 of them are MGMT).
Our system isn't perfect, and we certainly didn't pick 3 days to overwhelm people or kill the album etc etc. I just wanted to share our thinking and let you know we are constantly trying to improve on making music discovery fun.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Speeding up music?? There's a couple major flaws with this argument. But just to make it easy, here's the Beatles catalog and release years:

* Please Please Me (Parlophone, 1963)
* With The Beatles (Parlophone, 1963)
* A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone, 1964)
* Beatles for Sale (Parlophone, 1964)
* Help! (Parlophone, 1965)
* Rubber Soul (Parlophone, 1965)
* Revolver (Parlophone, 1966)
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone, 1967)
* Magical Mystery Tour (U.S. only. Released as a Double EP in the UK) (Capitol, 1967)
* The Beatles ("The White Album") (Apple, 1968)
* Yellow Submarine (Apple, 1969)
* Abbey Road (Apple, 1969)
* Let It Be (Apple, 1970)

13 albums in 7 years.

Disco D · 1 year ago

A lot of people prefer MP3 over CD or Vinyl.
Most people aren't audio buffs with hi-fi ears who can tell the difference between a 16bit 44.1Khz PCM .WAV file and a 192k MP3.
So, it's easy to understand why some are not compelled to spend on money they can get for free (even if it is a low quality mp3 rip).
Also, a lot of tracks, these days, seem to get leaked to the public/internet early via someone copying the promo cd/mp3 or leaking the demo, in some cases!

I understand, It's difficult to compete with "free".
But, I would also urge DFA to up their game, and release less medicore indie dance drivel.
Concentrate on putting out anthems, instead.
Put out great songs that are worthy of our hard earned cash.
Sure, some will download a free copy of copy.
But, many others, will buy, buy, buy.

They have yet to release anything remotely great as Dinsoaur L, Arthur Russell, Loose Joints, George Kranz, Laidbach, The Normal, The B-52s, Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads, Joy Division, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Soft Cell, Fad Gadget, The The, Kraftwerk...

Need I go on?
Jonathan Galkin - If your back catalogue was your school homework, it would be marked 'easily distracted, could do better, & see me after class'.

Nikau · 1 year ago

Brilliant article. However if it wasn't for the hype machine i wouldn't have found out about PMA, but i have to agree with alot of the points this article raises

DJ BIS · 10 months ago

excelente article.
The speed at which music is available is killing the soul and depth that music once had and you could not have summarized it better!

Thank you.