Hello. My name is Abby White and I’m the Music Editor at Performing Songwriter Magazine (www.performingsongwriter.com, if you’d like to take a look). My friend Samantha asked me if I’d like to contribute a column to smtvmusic.com, and I’m absolutely thrilled to do so!

I should start out with two disclaimers: One, that I am a huge music nerd and absolutely love talking to anyone and everyone about music. I love getting the mail every day at my office, because opening packages from labels and artists is like opening presents on Christmas day. Seriously. I’m praying I can hold on to this optimism and excitement for as long as possible, or I’ll turn into one of those cynical, jaded Music Row types I see wandering around Nashville. My theory is that they just don’t come across as much good music as I do. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been going crazy over Sera Cahoone’s debut, Jon Foreman’s solo project, Grand Archives debut (that’s an ex-Band of Horses-er, people!), another great one from Hymns, another great one from Matt Costa … see, here I go. I’m still on my first point and I’m rambling, but I’m just trying to translate to you how much I love music and what a big part of my life it is. So, hats off to all of you musicians out there—you mean a lot to those of us who love music but couldn’t play a guitar without repeatedly dropping the pick in it.

Two, I am a complete idiot when it comes to technology. Samantha taught me most of the stuff that I know how to do on my Blackberry. I accidentally spam people on MySpace all of the time (no, I’m not looking at porn, I promise). Every time I get a digital file from a label, it takes me longer than it should to remember how to access it so I can listen to the album (Tristan Prettyman, I promise I will get to yours before the link expires again). I feel like a genius because I finally figured out DVR on my fiancé’s TV. You get the picture. However, as an editor/writer, I’ve had to adjust to the many changes in the way that we purchase, listen to, learn about, and talk about music, so I’m trying to become friends with technology.

Obviously, we have a lot of options that we didn’t have ten, five, even two years ago. If you’re a musician, you can create music and get it to your fans faster than ever—no middleman required. And for those of us on the listening side, we have a million or so different ways we can receive the music you make. Luddites such as myself prefer a CD (or vinyl. Yes, I’m one of those music nerds), but if someone sends me an mp3, that’s cool because I can still burn it on a CD. And that’s still way faster—and cheaper—than snail mail. Even the aforementioned pain-in-the-arse-sometimes MySpace is an invaluable resource; I use it nearly every day to learn about a band or hear some of their new songs.

I’m certainly not anywhere close to being the first to make this point, and I’ve written at least two articles about this in the past few years, but the wealth of options and opportunity has also created a landfill of music to dig through. Yet, the cockeyed optimist that I am, I truly believe the good music rises above the rest of the garbage out there. The artists who are working hard outside of Internetland by touring, promoting, and building relationships—oh, and writing/performing great songs, of course—those are the ones we’re going to hear about somehow. Internet sensations like Tila Tequila may get their own MTV show, but I certainly wouldn’t pay to hear her sing (and if your goal is to get a reality show on MTV, I question your sincerity as an artist!).

So, my dear musician, please continue to do what you do. Get better. Work harder. I swear we’re listening, and we’re waiting to be knocked off our feet by what you can do.
Happy 2008!