Paid advertising is the least invasive and 'wrong' form of publicity because it does not hide what it is. It is very honest. Someone paid for space to publicize their product in their own way in the hopes that it will inspire people seeing it to spend money on a product. Advertising is in itself not evil. It is not wrong in any way to publicize heavy metal.
The key is to make sure that the promotion does not interfere with the content of the magazine. Media outlets need the sponsors to stay solvent, and the sponsors need the media outlets to let people know about their product. Music writing is often a stepping stone into working for a record company! How is it not the height of corruption and dishonesty for a music writer to take a job as publicist with a record company? Collusion is unavoidable in this scenario. I hate this entire cycle, but until music magazines can survive on ad revenue from, say, bubble gum companies, readers will have to assume that coverage is tainted (even on the level of what gets covered, let alone how) by advertising dollars. Not heavy metal at all.
The key is to make sure that the promotion does not interfere with the content of the magazine. Media outlets need the sponsors to stay solvent, and the sponsors need the media outlets to let people know about their product. Music writing is often a stepping stone into working for a record company! How is it not the height of corruption and dishonesty for a music writer to take a job as publicist with a record company? Collusion is unavoidable in this scenario. I hate this entire cycle, but until music magazines can survive on ad revenue from, say, bubble gum companies, readers will have to assume that coverage is tainted (even on the level of what gets covered, let alone how) by advertising dollars. Not heavy metal at all.
