Opinons vs. selling songs and a scribe’s farewell to the classical world

The NY Times had an interesting article recently about Gramophone magazine (a venerable classical publication) adding links to record labels along side reviews and opportunities to download the music too.  For many pop and rock publications, this is old news already. It’s considered being consumer friendly- making it easier to access the music being discussed.  But in the magazine/publication world, there is an important line drawn between editorial (or reviews) and advertising that many editors are still cautious about, and rightly so.  I understand why some classical fans are squeamish about this but as long as the editorial integrity can be maintained (i.e. even bad reviews have links), then I don’t see a reason to cry foul.  If it gets to the point where a mag is actively blurring that line (the way Rolling Stone and Amplifier did last year), then you have problems.

Speaking of classical scribing, a sad goodbye to Melinda Bargeen of the Seattle Times who penned a very thoughtful and insightful farewell article about her profession.  ST has a lot of other staff leaving too unfortunately.

—Jason Gross