Daily Nebraska music editor and the guy behind the annual Lincoln Calling music festival Jeremy Buckley put together a nice feature on the impact of blogs on music marketing and even quoted little ol’ me in the process (read it here). Buckley points out what folks who follow indie music already know, that Pitchfork has become the center of the webzine world, with the power to make or break previously unknown bands. He also got some nice comments from Christina Rentz at Merge, a label that has shouldered its way to the top of the list thanks to some smart, aggressive signings including Bob Pollard, Spoon, M Ward, American Music Club, Crooked Fingers and, of course, The Arcade Fire. It’s taken a few years, but labels are actually starting to take blogs — and more accurately — online ‘zines seriously. I had a chat with a guy who worked at Matador and Beggars a couple years back about why labels weren’t interested in online media. He said the bias against them was a matter of not understanding a ‘zine’s potential reach. Back then, labels would much rather get their bands mentioned in Magnet or AP than in a variety of online ‘zines that only get a few thousand unique visitors a week. That attitude seems to be shifting, thanks to Pitchfork and a couple other heavy hitters including Aversion and Drowned in Sound. Pitchfork, however, is still the big prize. I can only imagine the kind of chochkies the editors there are being showered in these days…

Since it’s a slow news day, here are a couple rumors that have floated past my ears in the last couple days. That familiar-looking guy that you saw sitting front and center at the Stones concert the other night was, in fact, David Gilmour (yeah, that David Gilmour). I’m told he was in attendance not only to see Mick and Keith play for the first time on this tour but to check out the Qwest Center. No, there isn’t going to be a Pink Floyd show here in the near future. Instead, Gilmour will be headed out on a solo tour, and Omaha is on the short list to get a date. The other big name I’m hearing that’s headed to the Qwest — The Who. We’ll see if that really happens, but if it does, I’ll actually be one of those idiots who rigs up some sort of system to snag a pair of tickets. With the exception of Radiohead, there’s no other band but The Who that I’d suffer through the Qwest Center’s bad sound and bad seating to see. Keep your fingers crossed.

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