Every so often it’s worth taking stock and giving a few observations as a regular jazz blogger. In a few earlier posts I have made a few comments about trends this year. To reiterate I think sax has been strong, so has US jazz (against the odds perhaps) and in terms of labels Blue Note, Edition, Nonesuch and ECM still lead the way for prestige, high standards and kudos. But artists using label services companies seems to be on the increase and in a digital space that approach seems a good idea to go along with if you don’t want to run your own label and can’t get a deal.
In terms of format despite the fact it’s not hip at all to admit this streams and downloads are the only game in town because most ‘civilian listeners’ use things like Spotify and Bandcamp more than CDs or vinyl. You can pretend people don’t use them if you insist and want to fool yourself but most listeners do so even if it annoys you. So you need to think as a jazzer how you can harness profile at the very least via digital platforms. Physical formats are fine but really who uses a CD player at home much these days? Vinyl especially for students on a budget is too expensive even to think about unless stuff can be picked up secondhand.
As a jazz blog I guess similar experiences are shared by other outlets it’s impossible I found this year to get ads or sponsorship to make the blog more a business. I got a few donations but not enough even to cover costs. So my role is as much chief investor as well as writer, editor etc. It’s a pity that some funding isn’t available to add to what can be achieved on my own. I often think of giving up. But then: Traffic is a bit better than last year even if it’s pretty small. But when a post gets 3-4,000 clicks which sometimes happens suddenly the potential is clear once again and this is a morale boost.
The big change done a year ago was to swap from an increasingly expensive local web company to DIY the site myself via WordPress. I tried BlueSky for a while in terms of social media having given up on X. But Reddit seems a better option so that’s my current social media drug of choice. It’s taken a while to figure WordPress out and I got some help from Ciaran and Marcus and the kind folk at ProfileTree along the way. But the results I think are better. Recently for the sake of economy I gave up my subscription for SEO purposes to Yoast. Maybe I will return when I have enough to or choose it again or another service like RankMath. It helps a bit but not hugely in terms of presence on SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). I think AI is changing a whole lot since even last year given the way people are increasingly using overview summaries on Google rather than clicking down page and visiting sites. Drop me a line with advice if you use either Yoast or RankMath. I’d love to know more. I’m just an amateur at digital techy stuff. But every day’s a learning day. One thing I really improved the site with this year was to choose a theme called Maag that puts me more in control. I thought that I would have become fed up with it by now. But I’m still using it after six months especially for its useful typographical choices. And yet the grid I think I will try to improve via another theme in the not too distant future.
Hope you enjoy the site. Keep in touch. Like, subscribe, comment, contribute, donate.
Cheers, Stephen Graham – marlbank.net
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