Boards
A reaction to recent crit of DiS
RE this: http://drownedinsound.com/articles/3743486
Hullo!
I'm totally open to this kind of criticism and am not being snarky but...
Firstly, the adverts, we moved over to Google ads, these only pay us if people click on them and we've tried to fine tune these as best as possible but some things to slip through the net, SORRY!
I hear what some of you are saying but it's a bit rich people complaining on here when very few of you have admitted to reading the content, and i have stats to prove this to be true, the average reader, of which there were 420k last month, don't think the same as you. In fact, conversely, the Social board is currently more active than ever. The DiS site as a whole is currently getting more traffic than ever before (4,745,883 pageviews in the past month)
What's wrong with the content? In the past few weeks we've had:
- exclusive first listen to the new Beck album
- a hugely popular (but time consuming to compile) rundown of the years best albums and tracks to date
- an equally popular guide to forthcoming releases
- exclusive reports on the Kele vs Lydon story
- run down of Sub Pop 20
- mixtapes from Late of Pier, Cut Copy and exclusive bits from XX Teens
- an interview with Mogwai about Young Team
- Bright Eyes' discography picked apart
- a hugely popular and much debated elsewhere discussion about the Mercury Music prize
- my new music tech column which has been picked up by various tech blogs
- and LOTS more
We've been focusing a lot more on generating original content (see above) and what with various festivals (losing the odd friday and monday morning here and there to being at them and writing about them) and also losing a couple of full-time staff due to budget restrictions, as well as there not being many notable new releases out at the moment, I don't think folks can really complain. However, you're obviously totally free to voice your opinion but what would you like to see on the site instead?
Yes, I have personally been focussed on getting http://www.theQuietus.com online, relaunching http://www.theLipster and developing the http://www.ThrashHits.com site, as well as looking into ways we can do DiS in TV and Audio forms (potentially working with Last.fm and Hype Machine, amongst others)
BUT there's also been a lot of talk about how DiS can develop many of the hugely popular social aspects of the site. How we can go back to the principles which the site started from (recommending the music we love) and updating the site to fit with the times. A new version of DiS is forthcoming (especially now that the above sites are nearly all done, just ThrashHits to go) and please bare with us as I think you're all going to want to be involved in the developments and I want you all to help test and suggest as much as possible, if that's cool?
Here ends a defense of things which didn't really need to be defended but I know what these boards are like and if you hear nothing, you fear the worst, right? Murdoch has sod all to do with DiS and for the record it was Sky.com we did the deal with and we have no intervention from them at all, in fact they're not even particularly easy to get hold of.
Hope this sets your minds at rest,
Sean
Founder, DrownedinSound.com
p.s. i'm always totally open to any and all suggestions you may have.