You know, I don’t really have anything new to say on the ten year anniversary of this website.
Each year it arrives, it passes, and I think a little bit about how far we’ve come. I think about the internet and how it’s changing, not always for the better, but how our little place seems to be doing just fine. All-in-all it’s what I want it to be.
And for that I’m happy.
Thank you to everyone that visits everyday and supports us to keep us online.
I had to re-read how I introduced this feature the past few years to make sure I didn’t repeat myself. But, here we are again at the start of a new year and it’s the best time to recap our favorite albums of 2025. Below you’ll find the contributor best of 2025 list with blurbs written by the staff talking about why we loved these albums. Each album title links to a streaming page so you can check out anything you may have missed. There’s also a playlist featuring a song from every album on this list, and a few staff members have shared their individual lists and some commentary in their blogs.
The final list is the combination of ten contributors and represents what each of these individuals liked most over the past year. It’s really that simple. So, before commenting something negative or mean, please think about the people behind the lists and the time spent putting together something that’s supposed to be fun and represent what the contributors to this website enjoyed the most over the past twelve months.
As always, thanks for spending 2025 with us, and I hope you find something new to check out and love.
Note: Check the bottom of this post for links to individual contributor lists.
Read More “Chorus.fm’s Top 30 Albums of 2025”
I’ve published a first draft of an AI Use Policy to define how, where, and – more to the point – where we won’t use AI.
This is a first attempt at putting my thoughts into words, and I will probably revise this over time as my own feelings about AI keep evolving. But I wanted to get something out there now, because everywhere else seems to be sprinting in the opposite direction.
Read More “Chorus.fm’s AI Use Policy 1.0”
Over the past few weeks I’ve made some behind-the-scenes changes to how advertising works on the site, and I wanted to share a quick update in one place.
If you’d like the longer, more detailed background on why I made this change and how it affects the site long-term, I’ve linked a few in-depth posts below.
Read More “A Quick Update on Ads, Support, and Direct Sponsorships”
I recently joined the Emo Kids Anonymous podcast to talk about a wide range of topics. We talk about AbsolutePunk, bands from the past and the little resurgence our scene is having now, and what it’s like running a community like this in 2025. You can check it out on YouTube, Spotify, or Overcast.
Read More “Emo Kids Anonymous Mends Broken Hearts”
Each year I put together a small gift guide post full of things that I think make great gifts and are a lot of fun to give or receive for the holidays. Everything on the list is something I’ve used, enjoyed, and recommend. I have recommendations posts for software, headphones, and miscellaneous stuff around the house, so the things on this list will be more focused on stuff not included in those posts and geared toward things I’ve come across in the past year or so and think would make good gifts.
I used my Amazon affiliate link when the product showed up there, which gives our website a slight percentage back if you make a purchase and helps fund our continued existence.
If you’d like to get me a gift, becoming a supporting member or gifting another user a supporting membership for a year would mean the world to me. And, if you’re looking for something in just about any price range with a Chorus.fm or AbsolutePunk.net logo on it, check our merch shop.
Read More “2025 Holiday Gift Guide” I try and do an update once a year where I kind of check-in on the current state of the website. Last year told a similar story to the year before, costs had increased, ad revenue had decreased, and supporter revenue was solid and growing.
The past year is not that much different. Ad revenue is what it is and the new normal. It’s at least steady now. And membership revenue is the reason we are able to keep publishing. In almost every week supporting revenue is 2x-3x ad revenue.
The website’s costs have remained flat this year. I was able to put off upgrading any of the servers last year, but the forum server’s hard drive space is creeping upward (we’re now around 65% full, mostly from image attachments). In the next year I’ll probably need to offload some of these images to a secondary storage solution. Which will probably have an additional monthly cost.
Below are the last 52 weeks of revenue for the website—ad revenue in blue, supporter revenue in green. The big green spikes you see are the main recurring annual renewals each year. One is right around when I write this post each year, another is around the time when the website first launched, and the others are around the end of the year and previous site update posts.
Read More “The Annual State of Chorus.fm”
I am starting to feel like these “time to rank things” lists pop back up on me quicker and quicker each year. We are once again halfway through the year, and that means it’s time to reflect on the best albums of the year (so far). Below, you will find both our combined staff top 30, as well as individual lists from our contributors and moderators. We hope you’ll find something new to love.
Note: You can share your own list in our music forum.
Read More “The Best Albums of 2025 (So Far)”
Sun’s out, newsletter’s out. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (June 28th, 2025)”
Thoughts on Mark Hoppus’s book, new Ataris, and a pop-punk rec. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (April 27th, 2025)”
It’s a relatively short one this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (April 5th, 2025)” It was nine years ago that I unveiled Chorus.fm. Nine years.
Sometimes it’s hard to wrap my head around the passing of time and other times it feels like it is going by so fast I blink and another three years fly by. I just wanted to take a brief moment to pause, reflect, and say thank you to everyone who continues to read this website, support this website, and participate in our community.
Here’s to many more.
Just some quick hits this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (March 31st, 2025)”
I got older. The pop-punk universe blessed me. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (March 23rd, 2025)”
I am not prepared to “spring forward” this weekend, so I am trying to focus on the return of the sun instead. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.
Read More “Liner Notes (March 8th, 2025)”