I was shocked and appalled to learn last week that longtime NYC music blog Brooklyn Vegan fired all of its staff, halting publication at the site after 22 action-packed years. According to Pitchfork, the layoffs came from parent company Veeps – itself a subsidiary of evil empire music conglomerate Live Nation – that also gutted Alternative Press, Revolver and Goldmine, all of which have been around since at least 2000. No specific reason was given.
As of today (8/11), all four sites remain live, with all archives and links intact, so it’s entirely possible that they will resume operations at some point in the future. More on that later.
When I started this site back in 2007, and for many years after, Brooklyn Vegan was essential reading as a follower of the New York live music scene. Mainly covering indie rock, BV also dabbled in jazz, world music, electronic music, experimental, hardcore, and just about anything else outside the mainstream. It was more quantity than quality, with multiple posts daily including quirky previews, reviews with endless photo dumps (“Gathering of the Juggalos,” anyone?), and a “What’s Going on ___day” showlist which I consulted on a near-daily basis. (Thankfully, we still have Oh My Rockness for that.)
Initially best known for their infamous comment threads – which often digressed far beyond whatever article they were responding to – the site grew more polished after BV founder Dave Levine sold the site to Project M in 2021, taking on a heavy load of ads and advertorials in a somewhat-Faustian bargain. I’m sure if Levine knew this was where things would end up after the Live Nation-backed Veeps bought them from Project M last year, he might have thought twice before taking the money. (The blog Ckord provides a thorough timeline, along with some compelling arguments for what may have driven this decision.)
BV has been on my blogroll from the beginning (see “Music Guides” on my front page), and I can’t bring myself to take them down just yet. But, the writing’s on the wall. Even if BV is somehow resurrected, they’ll likely end up as some algorithmic/AI-driven zombie subservient to Live Nation’s promotional needs. I predict it will be similar to what happened to Time Out New York after they shuttered the print edition in 2020. Sure, there’s something there, but it completely lacks soul, critical thinking, or any sort of personality. In short, it has nothing to say.
Which speaks volumes about the generally sad state of music journalism in this country. Aside from costing countless writers, photographers, and editors their livelihood – or at least comp tickets – moves like this will cost music and its practitioners far more. Scrappy sites like Brooklyn Vegan were absolutely essential for breaking bands in the post-music label era: big enough to cover shows at Madison Square Garden or Barclays Center, but small enough to send out actual humans to 200-capacity venues like TV Eye or Trans-Pecos. Which is exactly where, right now, you’ll find the next The National or The Strokes – just two of the dozens of bands that started out in scruffy New York bars and made it big because someone cared enough to document them. And no, your Instagram stories won’t fill the gap.
What can be done? Support your local independent music site, blog, or Substack with a donation, or even just a share to your socials. Click on some ads. Go to shows, read the review, and leave a comment. A thoughtful one, if possible.