One thing Ears To The House frequently points out is something most journalists in dance music know and will even admit publicly from time to time, but it will never appear in the hallowed pages of any dance music publication. This is the simple fact the industry is in an absolutely pitiful state.

Most of the outlets in the industry have the majority of their “content” produced by interns who are on temporary contracts and appallingly low wages – if they’re even getting paid in the first place. Regular journalists asking questions to the industry and the people in it are in desperately short supply. And the dance music press are far too close to the industry which they write about.

The wages don’t appear to get much better as you go up the ranks later – and if the latest vacancy at Beatport is anything to go by, the lack of respect being shown to dance music journalism is simply flagrant. They’re looking for a new editor-in-chief, and this person’s duties will include commissioning new content for the site, working on SEO strategy and developing and maintaining relationships with publicists – probably the biggest blot on music journalism today.

But the biggest insult we noticed in the job description? That would be the salary and work hours. £21,000 for a three day week, whilst working in the moneypit that is London. That kind of money might be fine for someone just starting on their career – but how on earth do you attract someone with experience or with a family to feed to that position?

We contacted The Insider over the weekend for his thoughts on the subject, and he told us “Dance music journalism has never exactly had much respect, and even in the nineties heyday, the salaries being offered weren’t great. I knew an editor-in-chief at a press outlet in the late 90s who was on just over £30,000 a year – and if Beatport can only offer £21,000 to someone expected to do all that work, that’s absolutely insulting.”.

And just for the sake of it, we asked our own editor-in-chief what he thought. Once he’d finished his coffee, he said “I run a site that’s pretty up and coming by the standards of some others out there. The job takes six days per week for me, and I never fully take my eye off things at any time. The idea £21,000 a year is adequate compensation for all that responsibility is laughable. It’s no wonder the dance music press is in trouble.”.

Looks like we won’t be losing our editor-in-chief anytime soon, then…