The Acoustic Edge is forced to Discontinue their No Depression Blog

I understand that the playlist of The Acoustic Edge Show is no longer acceptable on the blog site of No Depression. Since we are no longer welcome to let people know what type of music we are playing then we don’t feel the need to continue with the blog and we will be discontinuing it immediately.

This was not prompted by us but by No Depression.  I put up our playlist for this week’s Acoustic Edge Radio Show.  Of course what does this playlist do but point out songs and CDs by many independent artists that we play every week.  Because we tell people how to find out more information about the show and about us apparently No Depression considers this to promotional. 

Here is their letter:

Hi Terry-
 
Not sure if you happened to see the recent forum discussion “Advertorials on the No Depression site”.
 (https://www.nodepression.com/forum/topics/advertorials-on-no-depression)

We routinely take down blogs that are promotional in nature and one of the bands who’s blog we removed raised the issue of consistency and we invited comments and feedback from the community.  Because of how frequently we get promotional blogs posted, the site would quickly be overrun by artists, venues, publicists, etc. pushing their work, rather than more in-depth reviews, interviews, articles, etc. if we allowed that across the board.

There was quite a bit of feedback on that forum discussion and many people also contacted us privately to express their opinions. After reviewing the feedback from the community and giving it quite a bit of thought we have come to the conclusion to discontinue making an exception for promotional radio blogs.  

One of the most prevalent comments, and something that we have noticed personally, is that the radio playlists negatively impact the ability to search for relevant blogs on specific artists as they tend to overrun the search results. That issue and also an effort to apply our policies more consistently are driving this decision.

The exception to this is podcasts that can be streamed inline on the site such as these:
https://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/freight-train-boogie-podcast-384
https://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/big-enchilada-34-grandpappys

You are welcome to write full blogs about your radio show, your motivation for including certain songs, reviews of artists, etc.

I hope this makes sense. We’re not trying to be unreasonable or  unwelcoming, but rather want to create an environment where people feel they receive benefit so they continue to visit the site and we can continue to help spread the word about great music, etc.

I was unaware we weren’t spreading the word about great music.  I feel that not allowing radio shows and stations to post playlists is unwelcoming on the part of No Depression.  Most of these artists don’t get heard at all without radio shows.  Most of those who play this music on the air, including us, do not receive payment yet we always attempt and most times succeed in presenting their music in a professional and positive manner.

I’ve noticed this in other “Americana” and roots organizations such as the IBMA, Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine, and The Americana Music Association.  They are more interested in who they leave out and they are very inflexible when it comes to radio programmers.  To be perfectly up front with my feelings on this I believe many of these organizations feel that radio programmers are not very important and a pain.  Maybe we are, or I am, but I also feel we perform a valuable service to the roots generes.

If you want to see information about The Acoustic Edge Radio Show you can go to our Facebook page.  You can also see us on My Space and on our Website http://theacousticedgeradioshow.weebly.com.  You will also be able to hear the show in the near future as our home station, KCLC FM 89.1, HD-1 The Wood will be streaming.  You can find out about that progress at www.891thewood.com.

Sorry we won’t be on No Depression and supporting their mission, but if you are not welcome to do what you want then you are not welcome.

If you have any comments, supportive, negative or whatever please feel free to contact me at acoustic.edge@yahoo.com.

Terry B. Moses

Acoustic Edge Co Host

KCLC Acoustic Edge

St. Louis MO