Is It OK For Bloggers To Charge For Reviews?

This whole KevinNottingham situation has the internets goin' ham lately and since I consider myself somewhat of a "hip hop blogger", and have somewhat of a relationship with a couple of the people involved, I figured it wouldn't be too out of place to throw in my 2 cents over here.

Background:

Some unknown artist contacted Sean Deez, a contributing reviewer on KN, about getting their project reviewed on the site, to which Sean responded with this e-mail: (click to enlarge)

Said artist wasn't so happy about the 35$ charge for an indie review on the site, so as you can see they liberated said e-mail to the masses, and what followed was chaos.

Other bloggers went at Kevin hard, questioning his integrity and what not. Saying that the whole idea of charging an indie artist for a review, when they were already getting the album for free, was wrong and was gonna make music blogging mirror the situation with radio stations where DJs are getting paid to play certain stuff.

Kev came back with an official response. Citing things like website maintenance as reasons for the fee. But eventually threw in the towel and decided not to charge for reviews anymore.

So, Was He In The Wrong?:

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I started out with a huge post/rant on this topic, covering the opinions of both parties on the matter, and coming to a final conclusion. But who wants to read that? Even I didn't want to read it after I finished, so I came up with a little more organized version of the same post, easier on the eyes...

Opinion #1: Hell Yeah He Was In The Wrong

Think about it: KN.com is already getting these artist's material for free, and now they're gonna say that they'll only review it if the artist coughs up 35$? That ain't right. Especially for a site like KN, that prides itself on the support of indie artists, it's completely wrong to charge for a spot on the site.

Even though KN and his reviewers claim that 35$ doesn't equal a good review, it does guarantee a spot on one of the net's biggest hip hop blogs and therefore promotion for the artist. Since that money insures a spot, KN is letting cash dictate content on his site. That's unethical to say the least, hell it's damn near payola.

Kevin says all that money goes back into the site, to server hosting and all that. Which I can understand. Maintaining a successful site isn't cheap. But this particular problem isn't really about the money, the idea of the money is what's stirring up all this commotion. The idea that KN would charge an artist for a post is just wrong.

Opinion #2: No, What's Wrong With That?

Most of the regular readers of KN.com have sided with Kevin in thinking that a 35$ fee for an indie review really isn't that big of a deal. That Kev is just trying to make enough money from the site to maintain it. And that any artist not willing to cough up the fee for that kind of promotion is missing a good opportunity.

At this point, I could probably argue this side as well. The artists are only paying 35$ for a move that could potentially change their whole career. Plus, as long as the money doesn't ensure a good review, what's the problem.

A lot of bloggers (including me) probably wish they were in the kind of position where they could not only be getting sent music for free to review, but getting paid to do it as well. That's probably the source of a lot of the uproar in blogging circles. Inside, they're just kinda jealous.

Conclusion: So, Answer The Question...

The only area that Kevin was in the wrong about was not letting his readers and the rest of the hip hop community know that this was going on when he first started charging people. It's actually a pretty good idea, but the fact that he chose to hide it by not bringing it up is what makes it a little sketchy.

I think with a full disclaimer this could have been easily avoided.

Then again, in KN's specific case, he's supposed to be supporting indie artists, no? Choosing to spotlight one artist's work over another because you're getting paid by 'that one' is not alright.

So I can't answer the question. I understand that Kev was just trying to do him and get his money to keep his site alive and keep making contributions to the underground scene. I also see how charging for indie reviews contradicts the idea of the site, and how he was wrong there.

So it looks like I'll be coolin' it in the middle, undeceive until further notice... what do you guys think?