Is it just me?

Or has Harmony Central gone completely down the tubes in the last couple months? The first couple weeks after their Big Sale to Musician’s Friend were fine, but now it seems their editorial policy has changed somewhat. Having a look at the “stories” on the front page today, it seems like a fucking marketing meeting for an industry group of music stores that sell marching band instruments.

When I first heard about the sale to Musician’s Friend (a company which I think would be better named “Musician’s slightly retarded neighbor”) I figured HC would rapidly go downhill. It turns out I was mistaken. It certainly went downhill, but it wasn’t rapid. “[O]ver time you’ll see the website grow into a more vibrant, fun, and informative online resource,” said the press release mid-April. I guess that “over time” means “about two and a half months” in marketing-speak, and “vibrant, fun, and informative” means “shit you don’t care about.”

It isn’t so obvious unless you religiously read HC. The front page has always just been a press-release reprinting service, but at least it was press releases you found interesting. Now it’s the sort of press releases that I’ve always busted Sonic State’s balls for, the sort that a company puts out for the ‘what’s going on in the industry’ section of Mix. In short, boring pointless industry-speak that has nothing to do with the working musician.

Congratulations, Musician’s Friend. You did a good job.

UPDATE: Hey, HC, if someone from your company was reading this and going “hey, I don’t know what the fuck Chris is talking about,” I was talking about shit like this. Are you fucking kidding me? Some training mill turns out 14 new patchbay monkeys, and that’s news? Come the fuck on.