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All Punked Up Podcast Talking AbsolutePunk.net

Jason Tate

I was a recent guest on the All Punked Up Podcast:

Join us as Jason Tate takes us on the entire journey of what it was like to run the now defunct AbsolutePunk.net website in the early 2000s, how the site played a huge part in launching the careers of some of the bands we still love today, what he learned along the way and how he took that knowledge to re-brand what was our old favorite news site as a new and improved version that is now Chorus.fm.

This was a fun trip down memory lane and a nice opportunity to stretch out some of those podcast muscles. (Overcast link.)

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Pride Merch Available for a Limited Time

Chorus.fm Pride Merch
Jason Tate

Like last year, in celebration of Pride Month, I have put the “pride” version of the Chorus.fm merch into our store for the month of June. This year sees the addition of stickers, buttons, and magnets featuring the logo as well. I will be donating all of the proceeds from all merchandise sold in June to various charities at the end of the month.

If you’re curious about materials and sizing: this is a good starter on shirts, and this is good for fit.

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Building Chorus.fm 3.0 – The Design Process

design
Jason Tate

It’s been a little over a week since I launched the new version of Chorus.fm and I’ve been pretty blown away by the positive response. I think it may be the best reaction to a redesign of any website I’ve ever built. For fun, I pulled out a bunch of the initial sketches I made during the process, as well as some of the various other designs I played around with before actually building the website. I thought some might find the entire process interesting.

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Introducing Chorus 3.0

Chorus White Logo
Jason Tate

I started designing the new version of Chorus.fm before the COVID-19 shit hit the fan. My initial sketches were in the middle of last year, and I began playing around with things in Sketch not long after that. My first commit, for the version I’m calling 3.0 of the website, was on February 19th, 2020. However, it was this last month or so of quarantine where the vast majority of the work got done. With not a whole lot else to do beside buckle down and attempt to turn anxiety about the world into productivity, I put together the new website you’re looking at now.

April of this year was the fourth anniversary of this website, and I’ve been itching to take another run at the design and feel of the website for a while. When I first launched the site, it was my first real foray into the world of WordPress, and it was done on a very tight timeline as I knew I needed to make the transition from AbsolutePunk.net by a specific date. I’ve always been happy with what I put together, but I also knew it was never quite right. This new version of the site is virtually everything I’ve always wanted my website to be and was written from the ground up to fulfill my vision of what a music website or blog should be. My design goals were to keep a similar aesthetic to the current website so that things felt familiar while also focusing on new features, simplicity of use, and an obsession with speed and a great mobile experience. I’m proud of what I came up with, and I’d like to highlight a few of the changes.

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The Fourth Anniversary of Chorus.fm

Chorus.fm
Jason Tate

Today marks the official fourth anniversary of launching this website.

Another year, and wow, are we in the middle of some weird shit right now. I just wanted to take a brief moment to thank everyone for visiting this website every single day and, specifically, to everyone that helps support us. With all the uncertainty in the world right now, turning to the one constant I’ve always had, working on this website and listening to good music, has been comforting. I’m currently in the middle of a redesign of the entire homepage, and I hope to have that completed within the next few months. I’ve tried to turn all of this “at home time” into something productive, and I’m excited to share the results with everyone in the near future. I’ve been documenting some of the process in my weekly newsletter.

I hope everyone is staying safe out there.

Some of the stats from the past year:

  • 3,467 new articles posted on the main site. (16,553 total)
  • 530,082 words were published last year. (2,405,320 total)
  • 948,794 new forum posts were made. (3,648,860 total)

Ranking the Re-Rankings of the Rankings

Jason Tate

If there’s one thing we like doing on this website, it’s ranking things. We like ranking things so much it’s become a meme in the forums for just how often it happens in threads. From albums to food, to the new sub-genre of brackets, ranking has become a core part of our little culture. It’s also part of what we do on a pretty regular basis here on the editorial side of things. We’ve got our yearly most anticipated lists and the mid and end of the year “best-of lists.” Back in the days of AbsolutePunk, we scored these lists using a basic scale that I think Thomas Nassiff originally came up with. When there were 30+ staff members all contributing, it worked pretty well to give a basic structure to what albums were the most popular amongst staff members. I never really gave much thought to it, and it’s been passed down and continued to be used by different contributors that help put together all of the various lists here on the website. Last week I got the itch to re-think this process.

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Happy New Year

Jason Tate

I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a safe New Year’s Eve tonight. I hope everyone has a fun evening. If you’d like to join the community as the clock strikes twelve, our forums are the place to be.

Thank you to everyone that visited this website over the past year. Here’s to 2020.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
Jason Tate

Today is Thanksgiving here in the states so we will be on a much relaxed posting schedule today. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and you get to stuff your face with your favorite foods.

Chorus.fm & AbsolutePunk.net Buttons

Button - Featured Image
Jason Tate

A couple of weeks ago I added magnets to our shop, and today I’m adding buttons. All of the designs come in two sizes: the classic 1.25″ size or a larger 2.25″ option.

I’m really happy with how Threadless keeps rolling out new products like this. I made white AP.net buttons years ago but they were such a pain to get printed and shipped. In fact, I still have one that I turned into a magnet and have on my fridge. Anyway, I figured I’d throw these up in the shop for anyone that’s interested.

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August Supporter Pitch Update

Chorus.fm
Jason Tate

As I wrote about last week, I’m making my yearly pitch to everyone that reads this website to become a supporting member:

Based on these calculations, I am exactly 90 supporters short of this website hitting my goal for the year.

That means if 90 more people sign-up to any tier of the supporter membership by the end of this year, I’ll be sitting right where I want to be and it’ll be a massive weight off my shoulders.

Last week over 20 new people signed up to be a supporting member and I can’t thank you enough. It’s a fantastic start.

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