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I read most reviews that go up on the site and can’t say there have been more than 3 or 4 share-y personal anecdotes this year..?

:/

Readership is huge. Bear in mind the BBC's international reach and the respect its opinions carry overseas compared to domestically. It's a massive SEO magnet, too. But sadly its popularity has no bearing on the decision to cancel - it's purely financial, and without wanting to speculate too much cutting this service loses one job, mine, whereas trimming the budget of a few other projects to maintain a reviews service, even on a reduced budget, would probably result in far more personnel losses. So, from a purely human resources perspective...

90% + of BBC reviews, within the last 12 months at any rate, were tied to broadcast - i.e. coverage of an album was commissioned to complement a DJ or show's support of the act or record in question. Now, it's going to look A Bit Shit if that DJ, or those associated with said show, saw the review, and it was utterly trashing the record. So there has to be a balance. Negative reviews were published, many of them, but I certainly encouraged my writers to find positives in what they were reviewing. The key to BBC reviews was that the listeners of the music being covered were never made to feel that they were somehow inferior to those with broader, or more niche, tastes. Criticism has to be constructive and conveyed in clear terms, focused exclusively on the music at hand rather than associations, scenes, typical audience, etc. It cannot, at the BBC, be: "Oh dear, this is another boring album from a boring artist for a bored listenership"... because, right there, you're discriminating against a potentially massive audience. So you see, in short, it's always better to lean towards the positives than dwell on the negatives. And besides, it makes for a happier place to learn about new music.