Source Spotlight: The 405

We’re excited to have launched our Music Collection this week! In honor of the occasion, we’re showcasing one of our favorite sources for new and noteworthy tunes: The 405.

The award-winning blog, which has expanded beyond music to include art, fashion, TV, film, and more, has established itself as one of the premiere locations on the Internet for music discovery.We spoke with the mastermind behind the publication, Oliver Primus, about music blogging, the year’s biggest stories, and who’s on the rise for 2013.

I think it plays a massive role these days. It’s replaced, in my opinion, the role of an A&R person. Why hire someone to scout for new bands when you can use hundreds of different (and trusted) blogs? Whether as a service bloggers are given the credit they deserve is another question, but they’re definitely important. 

Hard work and having a plan. I knew after 6 months of doing this that I wanted it to be my ‘proper’ job, so I spent years getting up early, figuring out what made other sites as popular as they are and working as hard as possible. Help is also very important, but essentially it comes down to hard work from a lot of talented people.

I guess festivals, and the various casualties involved (financially) have been a big talking point this year. That and whether or not the whole Death Grips vs. Epic thing was staged.

There’s quite a few that did well this year that I feel will do even better next year. Acts like Ryan Hemsworth, Ab-Soul, Angel Haze etc, but I’m definitely excited about East India Youth and Gothic Tropic.

I listed a bunch of blogs/sites on Twitter which feeds into a column on Tweetdeck—which is essentially my new music stream (featuring sites like Disco Naïveté). The main source is probably the writing team! They always send me tips!

For more music discovery, and to add The 405 to your Pulse, head over to the What’s New section and explore the new Music Collection. 

What we’re reading on The 405: Best Tracks/Remixes/Mixes of 2012