Frank Kogan

The site's actually going to be a music store of some sort, so presumably the newslinks and the reviews are going to be ways to entice people to the site, where they can do some buying. The site's also going introduce, you know, articles or something at some point. Christopher says he's been assured that there will be 100% separation between the store and the written content, no attempt to plug product or demand that we write about what the store carries. And the rates are competitive: $50 a track review, which is to be a minimum of 75 words, but we can stretch it longer if we want. Compares favorably to the Voice, which on their short shots is now $75 for 200 words. The main drawback is that if I'm the one who initiates the pitch, then I'm the one who has to convince the label or the publicist/marketer to let us have a track for download, which means that in effect I'm selling the site to the label. It also means that the vast majority will be tracks on indie labels, which are more likely than the majors to go along with downloading as a promo tool. But I was able to get Meg and Dia's "Indiana"!

He has gotten a lot of writers: Eddy, Allred, Seward, Wolk, Dayal, Mikael Wood, Amanda Petrusich (she's the one who stood up for Ashlee fans in Paste), Sterling Clover, Keith Harris, George Smith, and a slew of others. So he's probably right that the thing is stuffed for the time being. But he hopes to review 5 tracks a day, so you shouldn't give up.