Comments on: Musician’s Friend Buys Harmony Central: Whither Independence?

By: gman

gman — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:24:05 +0000

I am not really sure what to think of this. Isn’t it kind of strange to have MF own a site that other major online stores pay to advertise on? What will happen to them in the long run? Will thier ads start to disappear, or will they be moved to obscure positions on pages? Will they move on to other online music resources like GuitarGearHeads.com ? This could be very interesting to watch.

By: reflex

reflex — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:08:27 +0000

It was very strange for me, back in what must have been the late 1980s, to read an E-Mu manual (I think it was for the Emulator III) written by Craig. After suffering through countless Roland manuals, it was such a huge breath of fresh air. But it was odd to see one of my favourite journalists doing such commercial stuff.

By: underbiteman

underbiteman — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 17:22:53 +0000

I don’t think it’s a big deal. Most of the items they have are press releases directly from the company anyway. Only thing that might concern me are the negative product reviews posted by the users, but I doubt they would touch that: they wouldn’t have any more postings.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:55:10 +0000

I’m just not yet sure what — if anything — this will mean for HC and their ad and content policies.

Speaking of tie-ins, weirdly, this week I got emailed ‘infomercials’ by both Craig Anderon and Jim Aikin. (The latter was sent out by Electronic Musician) But at least they were identified as such. Craig and Jim are such talented writers that I trust their infomercials more than some people’s writing, so those are marketing tie-ins I can live with!

Peter

By: reflex

reflex — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:47:59 +0000

I suspect that HC will remain relatively independent, but Musician’s Friend will be the only retailer tied into their web site. Very subtle (and discomforting) marketing. I run a music technology company, and I try to talk to independents (like Peter) first. I’d prefer unbiased and honest coverage, and I suspect that many readers can sniff press/marketing tie-ins a mile off.

By: giant25

giant25 — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 15:01:59 +0000

I have a lot of confidence in the HC Staff making the right decisions for the site - until now it’s been a fantastic, high quality, independent resource for everyone from non-players to professionals . It’s been well-run for ages, and I sincerely hope it’ll stay that way.

Sadly, I have absolutely no confidence that MF has HC’s best interests at heart - I’ve never been a satisfied MF customer (and have found Zzounds to be a far better customer experience). MF is closely associated with Guitar Center (one owns the other, I think) and it’s always been my experience that MF/GC has focused largely on quantity and not quality…

Keeping my fingers crossed that MF’s influence on HC is minor at best.