3 reasons why we don't write negative reviews



Hey guys! 

A little while back, somebody asked me why we don't write negative reviews on house in the sand.

Of course I responded to that person and explained my reasons, but I thought it might be interesting to also share that with you.

Now, if you've visited house in the sand before, I truly hope that you've gotten a friendly impression from that visit - that you felt like you were reading a message a friend wrote for you.

If one thing - it's our goal to be friendly, to be open and to be positive.

The internet can be a place for negativity (and hate) to spread and we just want to eliminate that as much as possible.

That alone is a good enough reason to not feature music we don't enjoy in order to only write positive reviews - but there are other aspects which are slightly deeper.

And today I'd like to chat you through them.

If you want to come and say hi to me on social media, please find me on Twitter and Instagram.


reason #1: it's a waste of time

When I review a song, I have the song on repeat for a decent amount of time.
An in-depth album review can take a good two to three hours if you really want to nail it down.

So just think about spending two hours of your time, listening to music you don't enjoy, just to write about it.
To me - that sounds like a huge waste of time, which I could've just spent sharing music I'm passionate about.

I also don't want to waste your time by telling you which song I think sucks - because you'd just waste your time reading my words and then not having a song to enjoy or take with you.


reason #2: we're not qualified

Sure, we have an ear for techniques - we know stuff about quality, skills, etc and we have studied and worked hard to collect wisdom and knowledge.

But if you really think about it - music is art.
And art is diverse, art is personal.

At the end of the day, whether you like a song (an album, EP) or not is down to you.
We don't have the right to change your opinion or personal taste - so instead of possibly scaring you away from a song before you even listen to it - I think we should focus on the tracks that we think are worth listening to.


reason #3: it's unfair

The music that we'd say negative things about, was written by an artist/a band that has spent a lot of time, love and probably a lot of money to record and release their work.

We are in the exciting position to know that most of the acts we feature, actually read what we have to say - and we want them to leave our website with a smile on their face.

No matter how famous an artist/a band gets, there's always a real human being behind the fame - and negative words can affect anyone. 


bonus reason: nobody benefits from it

(That one is pretty self-explanatory.)



Of course one could say that criticism is important (and it is!), but we don't think it's our job to criticise.

And those are our reasons for why we don't write negative reviews.


We would absolutely love to hear what you think about this - so please feel free to chat to us - we even welcome criticism. ;)




Thank you for your visit!















Credits // Words & Image: Vanessa Jertschewske

4 comments:

  1. I love this. I think it's great that you've created such a positive place with House in the sand, and while I personally do or would do negative book reviews on my Youtube channel, I think there is still a difference between music and books in a way - I would never do a negative review if I just didn't enjoy a book, only if it had content that could potentially be harmful to others. But I appreciate your positivity so much, it is so nice to come to read a post on here and knowing it is going to spread positive vibes.

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    1. Thank you so, so much for this comment. I always love learning more about your views and it's so interesting to take a look at the differences of types of reviews. I totally support the idea of warning people if content is harmful - not only does it make sense, it also helps.

      And I'm super happy that we've all somehow created this friendly little space of web together. Thank you!!! :)

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  2. I second that. That's exactly why carpe carmina only features music I enjoy listening to, too 😊

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    1. So good to hear about your approach of this - but I would've guessed it because carpe carmina is such a welcoming site! :)

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Let me know what you think! :)