Bruce and I run a fairly niche publication and sometimes it’s interesting to compare the conversations that we are having with that of the mainstream media.  There’s a story on CNN that begs the question, “Is the death of the CD looming?”  It’s not that it isn’t a great, relevant question.  It’s that it just isn’t even headline worthy in the world of Hypebot.  Why is that?  To a degree, it’s music industry snobbery.  The issues that we contend with on a day to day basis have, on many levels, evolved beyond that conversation and onto different ones.

I would imagine that if I wrote a story, posing that question our readers tomorrow, that they would, in effect, snicker at me.  You know, it’s just not the kind of thing that we’re curious about anymore. Given the right quote, from the right person, sure, it could become middle of the week cannon fodder, where we isolate the interesting part and link back.  But, in the numerous interviews I have engaged in over the last two years, it would have never occurred to me to ask Steve Knopper or Mike King what their thoughts were on the fate of the album format.  The issue, to some degree, has become inferior to us, not even worth bringing up.  Does that make us snobs?  Perhaps, not. But the contrasts been our interests and that of the more mainstream conversations about the industry fascinate me.  Because its them, not us, who are responsible for shaping the perspective of the public.