“I'd be interested to see you post about ethics if you have them” (emphasis mine) writes reader Katherine Dougan in the comments section of my previous post, throwing down the gauntlet. Katherine took issue with my comments on promotional discs being used as “currency,” stating “I find it incredibly disturbing that not only are critics using demos as "currency," but also that this is a well-known, "acceptable" practice.”

Katherine mentions that she’s worked for newspapers for around 30 years and currently edits a small weekly paper. Generally speaking, she has some smart things to say about ethics and I agree with her on some points, disagree on others, and find her to be incredibly naïve on some points. Since other readers have questioned the Reverend’s ethics and have challenged me to define my own self-righteous standards, I figured that I’d take a shot....

First, let’s get something straight here – I have never considered myself to be a “journalist” per se, and outside of a couple of classes taken to bolster my English major in high school, I have no formal “journalism” training. I am street-taught, or self-taught if you will. I published my first “zine” (although I didn’t know it at that time) at the age of 12 and begun writing record reviews for Sunrise magazine in Illinois for Rick Johnson and Bill Knight at the age of 15, almost 35 years ago. I have written as a reporter for different magazines and newspapers through the years and I suppose that most of what I know about “journalistic ethics” comes from working with talented and educated editors. First and foremost, however, I have always considered myself to be a “rock critic” and use the “music journalist” term (a recent epitaph used to describe the masses of unemployed music writers) lightly and mostly in jest.

That being said, I have always attempted, throughout my notorious career, to follow certain ethical standards with my writing. I have always attempted to present the facts of a story correctly, citing published sources or quoting individual interviews. If I can’t back up a fact or statement, I throw it away. I have always worked hard to quote people correctly and not out of context. I have taped nearly every one of the 200+ interviews that I’ve conducted, and I have tossed away good partial quotes if there was any confusion about what was actually said when I transcribed the tape. I have never knowingly plagiarized anybody else’s work and have frequently discarded projects when I found that another writer had done them first or in a manner too similar to what I was pursuing. I have usually met deadlines and have worked extremely hard to earn a reputation as a professional. I have never accepted money or gifts to write about a product or person, except for the time when an indie rock band sent me $3.00 or something like that to write about their album and I worked the whole “bribery” angle into the review.

On the other hand, those that know me personally know that I have never shied away from a fight or confrontation. I have never been afraid to “push the envelope” or tread on the toes of advertisers with my writing, a stance that has frequently gotten me blacklisted in certain circles. Back in ’85 or so I wrote a story for a national trade publication on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the “house band” of the Farm commune in Summertown, Tennessee. My editor wanted me to write less about the music and more about the pot bust that had gone down on the commune the previous summer. When I refused to do so, citing that it had nothing to do with the band (they had not been part of the arrest), I was told that I would “never write for another publication.” That was 20+ years and almost 100 publications ago, but that was my ethical stance at the time and would be now.

Of course, although my no-bullshit writing philosophy and take-no-prisoners style has earned me kudos from readers through the years, it has done little to endear me to career journalists and small-minded editors. While living and working in Nashville for 30 years, it got to the point that I had permanently alienated the country music community and the local media and couldn’t get a writing gig in the "Music City" to save my life. I have a reputation as a “loose cannon,” a writer that will piss off the wrong people or tackle sensitive issues without thinking of the “big picture,” and some other local writers have taken issue with that at times.

Here’s the big difference between me and them, however: I have never written for a living, never held a strait job in journalism. I’ve worked in restaurant management, in warehouses and factories, and in offices, tinkering with computers, and I’ve always written on my own time. Yes, I worked as a reporter for Nashville Business In Review, but I kept my day job and cherry-picked the assignments and subjects that I wanted to cover. I have been a “staff writer” for various publications, even an editor at times, but I always supported myself with gigs outside of journalism. This hasn’t made me immune to “journalistic ethics,” however; as I stated above, I have always followed certain personal guidelines. But my “outsider” status has allowed me a certain creative freedom, albeit one spent in relative poverty.

Now we tilt full-circle to Katherine’s initial beef: the use of promotional CDs (and, in the past, vinyl albums) as “currency.” Sorry, Katherine, but it happens. As a writer that works primarily in the field of music, I have received literally thousands of promotional albums, cassettes and compact discs through the years and, truth be told, I have sold the majority of them, and given away most of the rest. Until federal law took away the “rock critic’s retirement fund,” I used to regularly sell advance CDs on eBay, sometimes after reviewing them, sometimes not. Every single critic that I’ve ever known, talked to or heard about during the last three decades has sold and traded promotional discs in bulk.   

Here is my stand on promo discs: the record label sends you free stuff, hoping for a review to “promote” their artists. Regardless of how they are stamped or marked “For Promotion Only,” once the label transfers physical “possession” of a promotional item to a writer (or deejay, or retail clerk), it’s yours to do with as you wish. No, you can’t burn off a thousand copies and sell them online – that would be copyright infringement and patently unfair to the artist – but the original promo is yours to keep, sell, throw away or give away to a friend. That’s the way that the game has been played since I “made the team” with my initial published reviews in Sunrise back in ’75. Since then, I’ve written nearly 2,000 album reviews and have had better than 90% of them published somewhere. I feel no obligation to write about a CD or LP sent to me on spec by the label, although I have often discovered hidden gems in the “slush pile” of promos. Now, if I specifically requested a specific album for review from a label, then I’ve tried my best to review it, and have only failed on occasion when circumstances prevented me from doing so.

In the past, as a restaurant manager, I often traded pizza for promotional CDs and cassettes with the manager of a local retail store. I have received promo albums as payment for computer work that I have done for labels, and recently I collected excess promo discs from labels to send to soldiers stationed in Iraq (at my own expense). I have seen music magazine editors (regularly) box up hundreds of promotional CDs and cart them down to the local used music store to sell, and I have dug through dumpsters to retrieve vinyl promos thrown away by chain retailers. I have been told stories, more than once, by radio programmers that received boxes of promo discs to sell as an underhanded form of payola, and I have known more than one label publicist that had a lucrative side business selling unstamped promos to Nashville retailers. For a long time, the entire music biz was awash with promotional albums and CDs and label publicists, radio station programmers, retailers and, yes, even lowly “music journalists” have trafficked in promos for whatever personal gain they might realize.

Does the abundance of promo discs, freely offered by the labels, make the practice of selling/swapping them unethical? I dunno…that’s for egghead philosophers and college professors to suss out. I only know the reality of the situation, and for the rock critic – especially during the ‘80s and ‘90s – promotional discs were easy to come by and easy to sell and/or barter for food, drugs or other stuff, like books or videotapes. These days, the promo lists are much tighter (can’t remember the last time I received a major label promo, but then again, I’ve probably pissed them off too) and there are a lot more people clamoring to get on the list. It’s tougher for an independent entity like yours truly to score the shear number of promos that once flowed like water, but many print magazines and most radio stations are still flooded with promos. A lot of the big labels are going to “digital delivery” systems with watermarks (it’s cheaper for them in the long run), but most indie labels still rely on good old promo mailings, and individual musicians will fill your mailbox with their efforts if they find out about you.

The impetuous for this blog and much of what I’ve written about over the past year was the arrest of two Ryan Adams fans for posting songs from an advance CD on a fan web site. I think that this incident displays the recording industry’s overall ignorance and lack of foresight, and I’ve written at length about the industry’s follies for years, pre-dating this blog. Contrary to the opinions of many Ryan Adams’ fans, I personally do not have a problem with what these two gentlemen did. Posting these songs was not “theft” as some have claimed, and their actions did not deprive Ryan Adams of a single dime in CD sales (it is likely that, in fact, they helped promote Adams’ new album). There was certainly no need for the label to “make an example out of them” by having them arrested. A nice email asking them to remove the offending material was the only legitimate response to the situation.

Ethics are fine and necessary, and our political and corporate leaders could certainly use a refresher course in ethical behavior, it seems. However, a modicum of common sense applied to business would also be welcome…something that is completely over the head of a recording industry contemplating its own demise and blaming everybody but themselves for the tragedy. And I’ll keep banging this drum: when the record labels begin treating their artists with respect and the ethical standards they expect us to, I’ll shut my mouth. Sadly, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon....