If they’re lucky, a journalist has the power to influence; to convert readers into lovers of their favourite music and enhance the fanbase of artists who deserve more adulation. But if the record label that an act is signed to stuff up their career anyway, the caring scribe may as well not bother.

Sean Adams, who founded acclaimed music site Drowned In Sound 13 years ago, has been around long enough to witness the commercial weight of promising artists crumble ...