SPIN To Review Albums In 140 Characters Or Less

With nearly 20 writers and staff members, SPIN Magazine is asking itself what many music magazines are asking themselves: What is the role and value of the album review today?

SPIN comments:

The standard music review, once presented as an imperious edict, has increasingly frayed into a redundant, gratuitous novelty in an era of fewer and fewer actual music consumers…The value of the average rock critic’s opinion has plummeted now that a working knowledge of Google can get you high-quality audio of practically any record, so you can listen and decide for yourself whether it’s worth a damn

In response to these existing trends, SPIN created a new Twitter handle: @SPINReviews to re-contextualize the music review. They’re shooting to review over 1,500 records through the Twitter feed by their 8 in-house editors and a dozen other freelancers. Here’s another quote that fleshes out their motivation and purpose:

As music criticism gradually evolves into a “downloader’s handbook,” SPIN would love to be there to help you decide which records are worth breaking the law to hear… and which are worth the price of owning a vinyl or CD keepsake. Think of this as a passionate cheat sheet, a jumping-off point to explore your own opinion and fandom.

Note how this form of review sidelines the idea of assigning a “grade” to music work and that SPIN will be interested in reviewing everything from leaked mixtapes, box sets, and profiles on music websites like Bandcamp. That’s quite an evolution and sign that the industry is gravitating towards bite-sized journalism.

SPIN