Gawker Media, the blog empire specializing in snark, has broken a seven-month dry spell, with the launch today of Idolator, a blog dedicated to popular music: "We're as obsessed with the music world as we are with the machinations behind it," proclaims the blog's welcoming message, "and we'll cover the people who are manufacturing the latest band buzz, whether it's an old-guard standby (Rolling Stone), an absurdly powerful new-media turk (Pitchfork), or an agenda-pimping blogger (take your pick)."

The launch of Idolator is an apparent return to growth-as-usual for entrepreneur Nick Denton. In late June, Denton placed two of his then-15 blog titles up for sale and issued a surprisingly pessimistic appraisal of online media: "We've never liked crowds, nor believed in their wisdom," Denton wrote at the time. "Gawker launched and expanded in the middle of the web bust; as, four years later, web 2.0 enthusiasm reaches dizzying new levels, it's time for another perversely countercyclical move. We're retrenching...."

That statement, followed with the long lag since the February 9th launch of Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag, had some pundits lately predicting the sale of Denton's company. But with Idolator out today and the rumor of more site launches by the end of the year (the company is now back up to 14 titles), it seems unlikely that Gawker is on the block. Denton himself is declining interviews, though as usual, he's working his behind-the-scenes network to generate buzz for his latest creation (see "Nick Denton, 'Publicity Cat'"), which will face stiff competition from the legion music web sites large and small.