4 ms·

Facing the Music: We Need You to Subscribe to the Quietus

34 points by fumar 3y ago

emmelaich 3y ago
Not sure exactly what it is and the "About" links do not help.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- squidsoup 3y ago
  An arts and culture publication, with a focus on music. I've discovered far more interesting new music through The Quietus than Spotify's algorithm. Well worth a subscription.
canadianwriter 3y ago
I get it - they are in a tough situation but... This is not the best way to go about it. First time seeing the site - it's hard to navigate, small fonts that are hard to read and tons of text all squished together. Then when I read, what is essentially a sales pitch and I still don't know what they DO. Like - you tease "but just look at what you get in return…" but don't actually answer what you are - or how you are different from a million other publications. Sure, you don't have a ping pong table, but can you tell me why I should pick you over say the NYTimes Music section? Or some other indie music magazine? This sounds like I am crapping all over them, and I guess I am a bit, but I just get frustrated when people can't be clear about a differentiator. Tell me WHY I should pick you over everyone else, THEN tell me pricing and perks.
- squidsoup 3y ago
  From my experience, they find interesting new artists well before you're likely to hear about their work on the NYTimes, Guardian, or MSM music publication. They are particularly good at catering to listeners with an interest in experimental and ambient music.
- breakfastduck 3y ago
  This obviously isn't a pitch to totally fresh people. They're appealing to the thousands and thousands of regular readers that don't subscribe.
- burkaman 3y ago
  I think the target audience of this is people who already regularly read the site and know what it is, but haven't subscribed. It's not an external ad to attract new readers.
- RadixDLT 3y ago
  precisely, as web developer this site scrams a makeover. The site owners just don't get it, the best thing they can do is sell the site.
georgeoliver 3y ago
Currently 900 subscribers, and similarweb estimates 480k total visits/month. I wonder how that compares to similar publications?
beloch 3y ago
>We’ve recently had to strip back what the Quietus does, closing down our film and arts sections and have reluctantly put our books section on ice. In order to protect our music coverage we need at least another 350 people to subscribe to the site... I used to read music reviews in order to discover new music. Then I read them to confirm that I had good taste and pick up talking points that would make me insufferable at parties. I was stumbling into enough music I liked on my own. Now I just like what I like and mostly don't read about it. This personal trend is not just a loss of anxiety over liking "cool" music or gaining confidence in my own opinions. Getting access to new music used to involve a trip to a niche music store and a significant outlay of cash on a CD that you might have only read about. Reviews were an imperfect guide to finding new music. You just had to hope you'd like it as much as the reviewer. You don't need to do that anymore. This is a key function of music reviews that has been rendered completely obsolete. I still read reviews for movies and books because these require a larger investment of time. I want some assurance that my time won't be wasted. For music, I just listen and make up my own mind. Reading a music review today (I just tried it) is actually a somewhat frustrating and unrewarding affair. If the reviewer talks about a specific part of a specific track, sometimes I have to seek back and forward trying to figure out what the heck they're talking about. Perhaps, in a world of instant multimedia content delivery, print is no longer a good medium for music reviews. Take a look at this guy (Alex Moukala): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w80WSIBASzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w80WSIBASzU Almost half a million subscribers. He seems to be doing okay. His thing is to take music people already love, mainly video game music, and break down how and why it works. You learn something about composition when listening to him, and large part of it is because he'll play a passage and then immediately talk about it. This is next-level stuff when compared to print music reviews, even if the function it serves is almost backwards in comparison. You're not listening to this guy to discover new music, but to learn about what you already enjoy. I'm not suggesting that print music reviews are utterly dead. You can write about almost anything and make it compelling. There will no doubt be gems of music criticism written in the coming decades that will be a joy to read. The question is, will there be enough of them for a site specializing in music criticism to stay afloat?
- nluken 3y ago
  Music publications are still very important in curation. Sure, you don't need to put money down on a record before listening to it anymore, but just because we have a universe of music available to us through streaming doesn't mean that all of those options are good. Albums are usually at least 35 or 40 minutes, and there are far more albums being released than movies, so it's still impossible to listen to them all. The Quietus in particular focuses on highlighting artists far outside the mainstream that people might not otherwise notice amidst the sea of new releases on Spotify. We might not need reviewers to cover the new Drake album, but what about Horse Lords? Decius? There's a slim-to-0% chance I would know about these artists were it not for The Quietus. That said, I agree that print is a tough business to be in these days, insofar as every independent publication has it tough. I don't understand the comparison to a reaction video on youtube, since you even acknowledge that it has a different purpose. A better point of comparison would have been Anthony Fantano, since he does video reviews, but honestly if he published transcripts of his videos I'd probably prefer to read them.
davidgerard 3y ago
It would help if the signup popup worked in Firefox ...

34 points by fumar 3y ago

emmelaich 3y ago

Not sure exactly what it is and the "About" links do not help.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
squidsoup 3y ago
An arts and culture publication, with a focus on music. I've discovered far more interesting new music through The Quietus than Spotify's algorithm. Well worth a subscription.

canadianwriter 3y ago

I get it - they are in a tough situation but... This is not the best way to go about it. First time seeing the site - it's hard to navigate, small fonts that are hard to read and tons of text all squished together. Then when I read, what is essentially a sales pitch and I still don't know what they DO. Like - you tease "but just look at what you get in return…" but don't actually answer what you are - or how you are different from a million other publications. Sure, you don't have a ping pong table, but can you tell me why I should pick you over say the NYTimes Music section? Or some other indie music magazine? This sounds like I am crapping all over them, and I guess I am a bit, but I just get frustrated when people can't be clear about a differentiator. Tell me WHY I should pick you over everyone else, THEN tell me pricing and perks.

squidsoup 3y ago
From my experience, they find interesting new artists well before you're likely to hear about their work on the NYTimes, Guardian, or MSM music publication. They are particularly good at catering to listeners with an interest in experimental and ambient music.
breakfastduck 3y ago
This obviously isn't a pitch to totally fresh people. They're appealing to the thousands and thousands of regular readers that don't subscribe.
burkaman 3y ago
I think the target audience of this is people who already regularly read the site and know what it is, but haven't subscribed. It's not an external ad to attract new readers.
RadixDLT 3y ago
precisely, as web developer this site scrams a makeover. The site owners just don't get it, the best thing they can do is sell the site.

georgeoliver 3y ago

Currently 900 subscribers, and similarweb estimates 480k total visits/month. I wonder how that compares to similar publications?

beloch 3y ago

>We’ve recently had to strip back what the Quietus does, closing down our film and arts sections and have reluctantly put our books section on ice. In order to protect our music coverage we need at least another 350 people to subscribe to the site... I used to read music reviews in order to discover new music. Then I read them to confirm that I had good taste and pick up talking points that would make me insufferable at parties. I was stumbling into enough music I liked on my own. Now I just like what I like and mostly don't read about it. This personal trend is not just a loss of anxiety over liking "cool" music or gaining confidence in my own opinions. Getting access to new music used to involve a trip to a niche music store and a significant outlay of cash on a CD that you might have only read about. Reviews were an imperfect guide to finding new music. You just had to hope you'd like it as much as the reviewer. You don't need to do that anymore. This is a key function of music reviews that has been rendered completely obsolete. I still read reviews for movies and books because these require a larger investment of time. I want some assurance that my time won't be wasted. For music, I just listen and make up my own mind. Reading a music review today (I just tried it) is actually a somewhat frustrating and unrewarding affair. If the reviewer talks about a specific part of a specific track, sometimes I have to seek back and forward trying to figure out what the heck they're talking about. Perhaps, in a world of instant multimedia content delivery, print is no longer a good medium for music reviews. Take a look at this guy (Alex Moukala): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w80WSIBASzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w80WSIBASzU Almost half a million subscribers. He seems to be doing okay. His thing is to take music people already love, mainly video game music, and break down how and why it works. You learn something about composition when listening to him, and large part of it is because he'll play a passage and then immediately talk about it. This is next-level stuff when compared to print music reviews, even if the function it serves is almost backwards in comparison. You're not listening to this guy to discover new music, but to learn about what you already enjoy. I'm not suggesting that print music reviews are utterly dead. You can write about almost anything and make it compelling. There will no doubt be gems of music criticism written in the coming decades that will be a joy to read. The question is, will there be enough of them for a site specializing in music criticism to stay afloat?

nluken 3y ago
Music publications are still very important in curation. Sure, you don't need to put money down on a record before listening to it anymore, but just because we have a universe of music available to us through streaming doesn't mean that all of those options are good. Albums are usually at least 35 or 40 minutes, and there are far more albums being released than movies, so it's still impossible to listen to them all. The Quietus in particular focuses on highlighting artists far outside the mainstream that people might not otherwise notice amidst the sea of new releases on Spotify. We might not need reviewers to cover the new Drake album, but what about Horse Lords? Decius? There's a slim-to-0% chance I would know about these artists were it not for The Quietus. That said, I agree that print is a tough business to be in these days, insofar as every independent publication has it tough. I don't understand the comparison to a reaction video on youtube, since you even acknowledge that it has a different purpose. A better point of comparison would have been Anthony Fantano, since he does video reviews, but honestly if he published transcripts of his videos I'd probably prefer to read them.

davidgerard 3y ago

It would help if the signup popup worked in Firefox ...