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RE: Art Dudley: The Goodness of Your Heart: A Tragedy in One Act

Posted by RGA on May 19, 2016 at 21:14:46:

Well I sort of understand where you are coming from but let me say that there are a lot of capable writers and a lot of capable audiophiles. An editor for any magazine chooses the people who write for them.

And the editor of course does enforce standards via the process of editing and can simply not have the reviews printed. That is a standard.

People volunteer at soup kitchens - they're not paid so are volunteers all the dregs of the world?

You could make the case that e-zines are stepping stones to the paid gigs for some people. I really liked the writing of Kevin Fiske - so I contacted Constanine Soo (Dagogo's founder) and I forwarded Kevin on - he wrote as we all do for free - he then found a paying gig at Hi-Fi Critic and writes with Martin Colloms and Paul Messenger now. So that's pretty cool - but perhaps he doesn't get that gig unless he is first seen in print on the E-zines. But the point is if the paid guys are not dregs but the unpaid guys are dregs - then was he always a dreg or now not a dreg just because someone gives him a few bucks to write. Besides Constantine offered some of us money to write reviews and we turned him down. And he pays in other ways such as covering the hotel rooms at audio shows. Which is a payment of sorts.

I guess I am not sure what is being assumed about reviewers. Art is probably right that unpaid reviewers may be hoping for a discount - but that's kinda dumb since it's basically industry wide standard that anything we review is going to be 40% of the list price give or take. Some companies even advertise this right on their website (Zu Audio is an example).

But print reviewers get those accommodations as well. No salary and a very low salary is hardly a difference. If the E Zines paid us $50 a year we would be getting paid. But that doesn't exactly turn us from dregs to elites all of a sudden.

And perhaps when you get paid - there is an expectation to compromise. Without pay - we're not being bought.