Journos In Money-For-Quote Scandal

Scandalous allegations have been levelled at music journalists who are apparently selling one-size-fits-all quotes to press releases for bands.

The quotes, which are entirely interchangeable between bands, are being licensed to marketing agencies who can run them across a series of campaigns.

A brave whistle-blower on the underground trade showed SPA Confidential a few examples.

“This song by [band name removed] is just like sitting in front of a warm fire underneath an electric blanket in the middle of winter,” was one.

Another read, “[Band name removed] take their dues from The Clash, At The Drive-In and Radiohead, while bringing their own flavour into the mix.”

“It's despicable”, the whistle-blower said. “If I have to hear that another bloody band sound like sitting in front of a warm fire I'm going to blow the whole scheme wide open.”

Some journos have gone as far as to have example quotes printed on the back of their business cards.

“They'll just have the quote printed on the card, with the band's name or song title left blank for anyone to fill out,” the whistleblower claimed.

“It backfired on one journalist once when he dropped all his cards at an industry function while reaching for another party pie. People rushed to pick them up and every band for three weeks was described as 'their most mature work to date, they're really mixing a number of genres here'.”

Admitting he had sold quotes to press releases before coming to SPA Confidential in a bout of moral guilt, the whistleblower was behind a number of the “this band are breaking new territory with their mix of rock and dance music” quotes.