A Week in the Life of NME.COM – The Edited Highlights
Twitter is my social network of choice. I like the simplicity of it, and its concise nature. I find it a great tool for sharing information, and, most of the time, it doesn’t come with the emotional baggage of Facebook. Facebook is for people I know in real life, Twitter is for people who provide me with links to interesting things to read and look at.
Which brings us neatly to NME.COM.
Like most people, I spend my days sat at a computer. Hour after hour I watch the Tweets refresh and grimace at the ‘content’ coming from NME.COM’s Twitter account that pollutes my feed.
I had been meaning to put this post together for months but in this case time makes no difference. I’ve gone back over the last week and put together edited highlights of NME.COM’s tweets but it could have been any seven day period in recent memory. When you take out the news stories, the press releases masquerading as new stories, the small number of opinion pieces, the troll-baiting masquerading as opinion pieces and the tiny amount of reviews (Yes! NME reviews things! Who knew that!), what remains is a depressing stream of pointless and inane listicles that would make a Q Magazine editor blush and a bunch of “We don’t have much of an opinion, but what do you think?” posts.
The 50 greatest festival performances ever http://t.co/Z1YA3Ce3
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
10 forgotten supergroups worth knowing about http://t.co/lpxfNRQC
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
What's your favourite album cover recreated as a bento box? http://t.co/6oh2RGRS
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
Check out these ultimate rock 'n' roll groupies http://t.co/SnZFvRTJ
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
10 tracks you have to hear this week as chosen by the NME office http://t.co/guHZkL4a
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
From 'Batman Begins' to 'Dark Shadows' here are the best (and worst) Tim Burton films http://t.co/FUinGsmG
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
Need cheering up? Here are 50 of the most uplifting songs ever http://t.co/6K84aZZv
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
What’s the best Kings Of Leon album? http://t.co/P97KU1qG
— NME (@NME) October 24, 2012
Watch: Placebo's top 10 songs including 'Special K', 'Special Needs' and 'Every You Every Me' http://t.co/6v9NgfX9
— NME (@NME) October 23, 2012
My favourite tattoo – bands and readers reveal all http://t.co/EFW3ZHZG
— NME (@NME) October 23, 2012
Today we need your nominations for #ultimateguitarist! Help us create the dream band http://t.co/xs9ACeag
— NME (@NME) October 23, 2012
Here's your greatest guitar riffs of all time playlist created from last week's suggestions http://t.co/SmFKPqCU
— NME (@NME) October 23, 2012
From the Shangri-Las to Stooshe, check out our ultimate girl group playlist http://t.co/cS7KKW2w Anything missing?
— NME (@NME) October 23, 2012
Who do you think came top of our 50 worst music videos ever chart? http://t.co/lj9dgQEe
— NME (@NME) October 22, 2012
How Tom created 'Killing in the Name''s famous riff and 20 other 'Rage Against The Machine' facts you didn't know http://t.co/cixd124p
— NME (@NME) October 22, 2012
We're asking NME readers to help us create the ultimate supergroup. First: let us know who'd be your #ultimatesinger http://t.co/D0Jbj4jG
— NME (@NME) October 22, 2012
Greatest guitar riffs? We had so many good comments on this we turned them into a playlist. Have a listen http://t.co/uqxgsp3z
— NME (@NME) October 22, 2012
Jack White on Electric Six's 'Danger, High Voltage!' and 7 other musical cameos you never would have guessed http://t.co/sjGqgcxL
— NME (@NME) October 22, 2012
Which @Muse album do you think is the best? http://t.co/Mr7hbJmU
— NME (@NME) October 21, 2012
ICYMI – the 20 greatest indie anthems, as voted by you http://t.co/csrxsJIQ
— NME (@NME) October 21, 2012
10 tracks you have to hear this week including Lulu James, The Child Of Lov and SOHN http://t.co/vWmXfOJO
— NME (@NME) October 21, 2012
These guys have done nothing to help their bands – here are 10 of the lamest frontmen of all time http://t.co/lWZBojYl
— NME (@NME) October 21, 2012
The most obscene bassline in music? @lucyjones wants your suggestions http://t.co/hCMU4sEp
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
Check out these 31 totally illegible black metal band logos http://t.co/sYPlkJgL
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
Watch: Liam Gallagher's funniest ever outbursts http://t.co/xtW3oIVr
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
DO NOT listen to these songs on a date. Least sexy songs ever http://t.co/ZfUYDUy9
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
Desperately need a new music fix? Here are 17 new bands you have to hear http://t.co/97enQnFN
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
Bet you can't guess which are the 30 biggest-selling CDs of the past 30 years http://t.co/l2xhkOeC
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
What makes a pretentious album? Here are 10 of the worst of all time http://t.co/mkj1etAV
— NME (@NME) October 20, 2012
Do you remember the first album you ever bought? These guys do… http://t.co/aADULUxJ
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
Via @NMEfilmandtv – it's nearly time for #Skyfall so it's time to brush up on your James Bond knowledge http://t.co/yj9dduOj
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
50 of the greatest debut albums: should Jake Bugg's album be added to this list? http://t.co/9Dl6IQDi
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
The 12 best Libertines rarities according to @jazz_monroe – do you agree? http://t.co/U9hdA5TV
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
Question for you. What was the best ever year for music? We've been arguing it out http://t.co/2hcPTZnG
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
Watch: Part two of music's most brutal put-downs including what Noel Gallagher said about Keane http://t.co/Cxgf15NO
— NME (@NME) October 19, 2012
This week's most viewed – 50 songs that give you goosebumps http://t.co/bqQX4VYf
— NME (@NME) October 18, 2012
Watch: Music's most brutal put-downs courtesy of Lily Allen, Alan McGee, Noel Gallagher and many more http://t.co/Cp3005Nd
— NME (@NME) October 18, 2012
17 new bands you have to hear http://t.co/y6lrX4TJ
— NME (@NME) October 18, 2012
Nostalgic for the 90s? These tracks will make you thankful they're gone http://t.co/8EqY3uGW
— NME (@NME) October 18, 2012
Eminem is 40. He was good, once. See our photo tribute here http://t.co/FvHdedVm
— NME (@NME) October 18, 2012
Do the people who put NME.COM together and who write for it wake up every morning with joy in their heart and a spring in their step and set out that day to write something that resonates. Do they get to the end of the working day and feel that they achieved everything that they could and did it all to their best abilities. I just can’t fathom how it works.
Although I’ve always known the lead picture at the top as the Project Management Triangle (with Wikipedia telling me it’s also called the Triple Constraint or the Iron Triangle), it’s more commonly referred to as “Fast, Cheap, Good: Pick Two”. Essentially:
- if you want something quickly and to high standard, it will not be cheap
- if you want something quickly and cheap, it will not be high quality
- if you want something cheap and with high quality it will not be quick.
NME.COM (and countless other internet publications) have fixed their two sides of the triangle: they’ve chosen fast and cheap, so the quality cannot and will not be high. They’ve chosen to churn out content as fast as they can manage to maximise page hits.
NME.COM highlights everything that’s wrong with an internet publishing business model that’s based on page hits. As a photographer, I’ve often considered how perverse it is that a writer could compose a truly stuinning live review or album review or come up with an insightful, interesting and entertaining interview and yet the majority of readers will only read it once. By comparison I could put together a terrible click-through gallery of awful photos and the instant that someone clicks on ‘Next’, I’ve promoted and validated the business model more than a one-time read article will have managed.
Pitchfork comes in for a lot of criticism on Collapse Board but I’m blown away by its recent Cover Story features, in particular the latest one on Bat For Lashes. Forget what I said before about only reading an interview once, I’ve clicked on that feature almost every day in the last week. It’s just such a beautiful marriage of images and text, a real work of art, that it makes the content almost superfluous. The same could be said of the previous Cover Stories on Passion Pit, Cat Power and Ariel Pink but, for me, the Bat For Lashes story is the real game-changer.
I’m guessing that the time, effort and cost will prohibit the Cover Story approach being an everyday occurrence (rather than monthly at present) but compare and contrast it to NME.COM and it shows what can be done and that some publications are striving to improve the quality of web publishing.
In the meantime, if there is a race to the bottom of the internet, NME.COM is way ahead of the pack and at terminal velocity.
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