The Music Press Report

After a solid year of work, The Music Press Report’s 211-page directory of music press contacts is now available for download.

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Over the past month, we asked our readers - several thousand music journalists and photojournalists from around the world - to nominate and vote for the best in music journalism in 2007. Here’s what they picked:

Best News Site:
Billboard.com
Runner-up: NME.com

Best Features Site:
Pitchfork
Runner-up: Observer Music Monthly

Best Blog:
Rockcritics.com
Runner-up: Stereogum

Best Magazine:
Mojo
Runner-up: Paste

Best Writer:
Tie: Alex Ross and Rob Sheffield

Best Photographer:
David Bergman
Runner-up: Neil Zlozower

Best Book:
“Love Is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield
Runner-up: “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” by Alex Ross

Congratulations to the winners! There’s a lot to be proud of because, unlike a lot of awards, these were decided by your peers (literally, the toughest critics in existence).

The music press has spoken and the nominees have been chosen for the first annual Music Press Awards. The process was simple enough - suggestions were collected from music journalists and photojournalists all over the world and those nominees that appeared on the most lists were chosen for the final cut:

Best Book:

• “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” by Alex Ross
• “Love Is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield
• “Lost Genius” by Kevin Bazzana
• “Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music” by David N. Meyer
• “Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America” by Jonathan Gould

Best Site for News:

• Billboard
• LiveDaily
• antiMUSIC
• NME
• RollingStone

Best Site for Features:

• Stylus Magazine
• PopMatters
• Pitchfork
• Drowned In Sound
• Observer Music Monthly

Best Blog:

• Stereogum
• Daytrotter
• Guardian Unlimited
• Rockcritics.com

Best Magazine:

• Paste
• Word
• No Depression
• Billboard
• Mojo

Best Writer:

• Alex Ross
• Ann Powers
• Rob Sheffield

Best Photographer:

• David Bergman
• Graham Smith
• Bob Leafe
• Neil Zlozower

Voting will take place this week by invitation to subscribers of The Music Press Report Newsletter.

Here’s the chance to make your favorites of the past year known. We’re taking nominations for our first annual Music Press Awards, to be held in January 2008. Voting will begin in December. Discussion of the nominees will take place on the music writers list and music photographers list. The categories:

Best Book
Best Web Site (depending on the number of nominations, this could be broken down in several subcategories)
Best Photograph
Best Magazine
Best Newspaper
Best Feature
Best Interview
Best Review

Music Writer of the Year
Music Photographer of the Year

Favorite Album
Favorite Artist
Favorite Tour

So speak up! Send in your nominations through our contact form.

The new design is up and now the archives will be repopulated. The new focus around here will include job postings, contests, original features, interviews and case studies of successful music publications. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you’ll have to check your links. There will be new URLs for the articles and a new RSS feed.

Legacy members of the Association of Music Writers and Photographers will receive their benefits by email.

This redesign is the result of readers surveys and will provide a much easier-to-read site. Thanks!