If there’s one thing we place above everything else here at Ears To The House, it’s our integrity. Quite simply, we believe in doing all we can to get things right. We believe in putting our hands up and admitting if we’ve got something wrong. We believe in being honest with our audience about our own views on things – and we will never allow ourselves to be bought.
Sadly, the dance music press doesn’t operate by such standards. We have recently seen just what a craven, weak publication Mixmag is nowadays – the fact they apparently kow-towed to the wishes of Carl Craig in banning the journalist they’d hired to review Movement Detroit for them speaks volumes.
A stronger dance music press, a dance music press which operated with integrity and authenticity, would have called Movement and Carl Craig out for doing it. The Mixmag of old, headed by greats like the recently deceased Dom Phillips, wouldn’t have hesitated to stand up for his publication – the fact the current editor did not is utterly damning.
And now we see yet more evidence that Mixmag can clearly be influenced by those with deep pockets, with the publication of an article called “How NFTs are shaking up the music industry – for the good of both fans and artists”. Now, NFTs are clearly a legitimate subject of debate – and opinions on them are pretty divided here at Ears To The House.
There is also, of course, nothing wrong with the media running articles stating a point of view. But this piece in Mixmag doesn’t do that – if you take a look at the tag line next to the writer, it states “in association with TokenTraxx”. In other words, Mixmag have been paid a generous sum of money to put this on their website – and as they reveal at the bottom, this also appeared on The Face.
Both The Face and Mixmag are owned by the same company, Wasted Talent Ltd. Does Mixmag not have a duty to provide more balanced coverage on an issue which remains deeply controversial in the eyes of many?
Or does that duty cease to apply when someone waves a large cheque around?
