This bugs me…

One idea is to create more word-of-mouth buzz around new bands, since that’s apparently how the kids find their rock and roll these days. Unfortunately, this will be manufactured buzz courtesy of the “word-of-mouth” department at Columbia. It sounds as though the label wants to hire college students to spread “commissioned buzz through chat rooms across the planet and through old-fashioned human interaction” though, so far as I know, most of my “old-fashioned” friends have not been paid by a record label to tell me about bands that the label wants to push.

…from this ArsTechnica article.

Wow. Soon we can be *paid* to be PR whores for big business. Now, I wouldn’t mind at all if someone wanted to pay me to tell others that I like Radiohead…since I already do. :-) But I can smell the this turning sour quickly.

Yesterday, my little brother told me to listen to the disc “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” by the band Brand New. He said it was one of his fav albums. So I gave it a listen. But in the near future, will I have to ask him if he’s being paid to tell me this? I suspect that this will only last as long as our cynicism is naive.

Out of curiosity, though, how will they track this? Do I have to push a button every time I say the name of the artist they want me to push? :-)