Update: Story Behind BuzzMedia & The Music Blogs

A vaguely worded Memorial Day press release from BuzzMedia which "announced the addition of six established and influential music sites" – PureVolume, PopMatters, Gorilla vs. Bear, The Hype Machine, Concrete Loop and RCRD LBL – "complementing" Buzz's "current music properties" Stereogum, Buzznet, Idolator  and Absolute Punk led to speculation that the online media company had bought the six music blogs with a total monthly readership of 5 million.

In fact, each blog has structured its own  unique deal with Buzz and most are centered around advertising. While Buzz does own and control most of its original properties,  the new "additions" leave  most of the bloggers independent. A spokesperson for BuzzMedia described the new relationships with HypeM, RCRDLBL and Pop Matters as "partnerships" and claimed that "all sites will retain their own editorial control."

For most of the blogs, "partnership" appears to mean selling and delivering adds.  But for the Gorilla vs. Bear blog, The Buzz relationship goes farther. "We generally don't get into details of how deals are structured," said the Buzz spokesperson, "but Gorilla vs. Bear is an acquisition in the form of an investment with right to buy the remainder".

More From Anthony V of The Hype Machine:

Anthony V explained his own Hype Machine blog's relationship with Buzz in detail to Hypebot:

"We've been working with Buzz Media for some time and they've been an exceptional advertising partner, working with us on a full range of ad products, from banners, site skins, to custom site features.. We are a small team, mostly focused on product, and it's difficult for us to effectively sell advertising on our own, so it's great to partner with such a competent team.  On a geeky level (I write software, after all), even the tech implementation of ad delivery is impressive."

Concrete Loop also wrote Hyepbot independently to say that, "Buzzmedia doesn't own Concrete Loop either. It's a unique partnership."  For now at least, it appears that some of music's top bloggers are remaining the independent voices that their fans expect.