That excerpt doesn’t sound like something a fan blog or a paid review would say. Sounds pretty unbiased to me.

Has anyone heard more info on other shows or future touring plans?

Art and music critics at most newspapers have lost out to the reality of sinking revenues. There just aren’t a lot of “professional” reviewers out there anymore. The “majors” still have them, but most have gone by the wayside. At most “legitimate” newspapers now, the byline of the author is followed by “Special to the (name of paper).” Whenever a story says “special to” it means that it was written by non-staff. On occasion it is a contracted article that the author is (barely) paid for. The New York Times pays well, but most pay a pittance. The author of this comment has made horrid wages writing freelance for the likes of Gannett (USAToday) and other “respected” news organizations. Anyway, back to the reviews. The concert reviewer is typically paid via the free tickets that were sent to the newspaper. It is usually a fan that knows someone at the paper and gets the opportunity to write the review and attend the concert for free. Or, it is a fan at the paper that convinces the boss to let him or her attend the show and write the article/review off the clock.

These days, bias has (unfortunately) become the accepted norm, even when there is a “professional” at the critical helm. I seem to recall a certain blogger/writer for a “respected” newspaper that likes to start out each Idol season by deciding which contestant she is going to hate that year – lol – what a trusted source of unbiased opinion! (No it is not mj.)

Whether or not the writer is a “professional” and gets paid, or a blogger who is writing for fun, it is all still just opinion. Sometimes they are fans, as we all know. I won’t even get into that. I could go on for a long time with a list of stans writing about their favorites. More often they are fans of the genre more than any one artist, as was the case with a couple of the reviews that durbfan pointed out.

Unfortunately, “professional” writers are SOL these days. Organizations hire a webmaster and throw the writing to them. Or, in the case of one of those reviewers, they throw the work to the photographer and have him write the review as well. It’s a lot cheaper than hiring a webmaster and writer (but the writing is horrible – shudder). I hear that some papers are starting to outsource the writing to India. Jeez – I’d rather be replaced by a robot!! LOL!!!

Roarpen, you are so right.  My sister writes book reviews for many very well-known publications and online sites.  Her payment?  Free books.  I would think a lot of music reviewers are compensated in the same way.  With my sister, she gets to choose a category of books to review, and they send her books in that category.  Hers are non-fictional history and social events.  So I would think the music reviewers choose the genre they like, and are provided free tickets in exchange for the review.  Also, a lot of reviewers (like my sister) do this in the hopes that they will someday be paid for their services. 

I wonder though why in the world they would have 2 James’ concerts so close together like that a night apart?  No doubt people who really wanted to see him would have driven the extra miles if they would have had 1 concert in that area instead.  You would think Wind Up would have scheduled 2 shows in 2 completely different areas.