Intelligent independent writing about the music industry has been limited to a handful of bloggers and even fewer mainstream journalists. Several have been silenced or relegated to less powerful pulpits by recent layoffs at the NY Times, LA Times and Wired, but two of the most vocal critics of the industry have recently found homes at its most established trade publication. Glenn Peoples who blogged at Coolfer and David Prince, the man behind The Daily Swarm, have both joined the staff of Billboard.

For five and half year Peoples blogged daily at Coolfer.com about music industry news adding insightful commentary.  Now he's shut down Coolfer to turn his attention to a new post as Senior Editorial Analyst at Billboard.  Prince founded the irreverent Daily Swarm almost two years ago, but took over as The News Editor of Billboard.com last week. David says he'll continue to post on The Swarm alongside several contributors, but admits "news scoops will go to the day job".

Billboard has taken on an edgier and more opinionated tone in recent months and its good to see two fine writers get more steady sources of income.  But its also hard to imagine that these two independent voices won't somehow be altered by senior editors and pressure from the trade publication's major label advertisers.