A long time ago author David Kline contacted me to talk about blogging for a book he was writing. I spoke to him about an idea that was just formulating, which I had just decided to call FM. The book is now coming out, and David has made the chapter on FM - which reads as an interview with me - available online. From the PDF download:
I believe blogging is all about personal voice, and because of that, it is much more akin
to music or book publishing than it is to the newspaper or magazine business. Blogging
is highly personal, just like the music and book business, and it’s personal on both sides
of the equation. It’s personal because it’s the individual voice of the blogger that attracts
the audience, just like a band does. And it's personal in that the audience reacts to the
voice of the blogger much like it reacts to that of a musician. They’re fans. They’re
critics. They love you, they hate you, but they pay attention to you because of your
individual voice. The print business isn't quite like that.
....
But it's just not true that anybody can gather an influential audience, any more
than it's true that any band can generate a following influential enough to move music in
a particular direction. But what is true is that credibility and influence -- things that are
critical to motion in a society, to action in a society -- are no longer restricted to
institutional arbiters like newspapers and television or politicians. Thanks to blogging
and other forces in society, credibility and influence are now also in the hands of
ordinary people. The economy of credibility has flattened.
....
A music approach to the world asks: What are the bands that seem to be really
happening in the clubs in Seattle? And then let's go sign those bands that have an
endemic audience, that already have a voice. That's a whole different approach than
saying you want to get angry 15-18 year old boys whose family has an income of forty
to sixty thousand dollars a year. That’s the wrong approach. You say, how come all
these kids are listening to that band? Who cares? They just are. I’m going to sign ‘em.
You’re starting with the editorial as opposed to starting with the market opportunity.
