The relationship between the music business and the music press, of which Hot Press is a part, is mutually dependent but can sometimes be difficult. The record companies need publicity for their acts - to sell records and concert tickets; the music press needs stars to interview and new releases to review. On occasion, the agenda of the music press can be very different to that of the record companies, both in terms of the material or artists covered and the way in which those artists are presented. "The point is that you are bombarded to one degree or another with new releases, with material that people want to push, with phone calls to go out doing interviews with people," says Hot Press editor Niall Stokes. "We just take everything on what is considered, broadly speaking, to be its editorial value. If there are enough people who are interested and enthusiastic then things tend to get editorial space."
He stresses that - perhaps unlike some of its competitors - Hot Press has established a "huge level" of independence from the lines that record companies want to push and that, ultimately, writers are free to make their own judgements.
"You get presented with things like: `So-and-so will only do an interview if it's a cover story' - and then you say it's not a cover story so you don't do the interview," Stokes says. "That has happened countless numbers of times and we just make our own decisions. "They have their job to do, which is to push the artist and sell the product and so on. We have our job to do, which is to produce a paper which has a real standing with its readers and the musical community as a whole."
Morrissey, who does few interviews, is set to do an interview with Hot Press in Chicago to promote his new album Maladjusted. "Morrissey knows the paper and he is himself convinced that it's something that should be taken seriously enough for him to do the interview," Stokes says.
"You get that kind of situation frequently, where it's the musicians themselves who are ultimately deciding and we have to maintain the respect of people, from the bands who are just coming on stream and whose demo you're reviewing right up to the people at the top level. "You do that by establishing that this is a credible journalistic medium - and I think that's what we've achieved in Hot Press."
According to Graham Molloy of Sony Music's press department, tensions between the press and the music business are rare. "It's just that we are coming from two different agendas," he explains. "The music press want to sell copies and they do that by putting Oasis on the front cover. We want to break new acts in order to continue that cycle. "Obviously, the music press is very important. People read Hot Press and base their buying decisions on what Hot Press and others say about our records. It's very important that our artists are in there and being reviewed, and reviewed positively. "In the end, they need us and we need them: there's a synergy there."
