Want to know why the music business is broken? Look at how Rolling Stone Magazine mismanages its most prized asset: five-star reviews.
Over the last two months, Rolling Stone Magazine published five-star reviews for three albums. Rolling Stone rating an album five stars is as rare as a four-leaf clover or a Bush apology. How did Rolling Stone announce this rare event? With a red carpet event? With a press release? With a blog post? No, with minimally competent mentions in their pathetic feed:
Wish you could browse the full list of Rolling Stone five-star-rated albums? Wish you could to be able to buy all of them easily as MP3s? Or hear samples of some of them? Keep wishing.
The music industry wonders why album sales have been decreasing. Check out this chart. I argue that the 1990s almost killed rock. Note that many albums in the “2000s” column are reissues – it’s an imperfect science (but at least I’m trying).
I’ve done my best to do Rolling Stone’s job for them, but I’m getting tired of doing these updates. This may be my last. Here’s the full list of albums rated five stars by Rolling Stone magazine:
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 1950s, 1940s, 1930s, 1920s
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 1960s
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 1970s
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 1980s
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 1990s
- Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: The 2000s
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See also:
http://www.unlikelywords.com/2010/02/01/more-rolling-stone-five-star-reviewed-albums/
Rolling Stone continues to squander one of its biggest assets: five-star reviews. Here are the latest:
2009-04-09 – Radiohead – OK Computer (Collector’s Edition)
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/27479292/review/27535038/ok_computer_collectors_edition
2009-06-01 – The Who – The Who Sell Out (Deluxe Edition)
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/28339907/review/28375826/the_who_sell_out_deluxe_edition
2009-06-09 – The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You (Remastered Edition)
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/28503608/review/28565416/tattoo_you_remastered_edition
2009-08-24 – Woody Guthrie – My Dusty Road
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/29203523/review/29716114/my_dusty_road
2009-09-08 – The Beatles – The Beatles: Stereo Box Set
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/29924194/review/29951366/the_beatles_stereo_box_set
2009-11-03 – The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/30450590/review/30455320/get_yer_yayas_out_the_rolling_stones_in_concert__40th_anniversary_deluxe_box_set
2010-01-27 – U2 – No Line On The Horizon
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/26079033/review/26212378/no_line_on_the_horizon
2010-01-27 – Various Artists – The Best of Chess Records
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/24750220/review/25328952/the_best_of_chess_records
2010-01-27 – R.E.M. – Murmur – Deluxe Edition
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/24458328/review/24602388/murmur__deluxe_edition
and SHAME on Rolling Stone that you can’t sort their reviews by star rating … that’s a tremendous resource they have on their site, but they’re doing little with it to make it as user-friendly as possible
You would think that they would of done a better job announcing their event. You’re example of Rolling Stone failing to do is just one example of a poor job I see all the time.
I see things like this all the time with local businesses. No wonder so many close often. They put all this work into creating an event, a new special and all they do is stick a sign in the window or on the front lawn and nothing else. No direct mail, no newspaper ads, no local press releases.
Greetings AC,
Yes, I guess Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville” counts as a Rolling Stone 5-star album. There remains no good way to find/buy them on http://www.RollingStone.com.
Regards,
Erik
And back again. A commenter this morning suggested Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville got 5 stars. I looked into it and saw that originally it got 4 stars, but then it was given 5 stars after being reviewed again in the 2000’s. How do you classify that?
I linked to this yesterday evening and then got into a discussion with my co-blogger about other albums that could have been rated 5 stars in the 90s. That discussion here.