The Save Stereogum compilation has been released to all backers on Indiegogo. It’s over three hours long and the full track listing can be found below. The Julien Baker cover of Blink-182’s “Anthem Part 2” is specifically perfect.
Read More “‘Save Stereogum’ Album Out Now” Our small team has always thought of itself as a DIY operation, which was difficult to reconcile while part of a corporate conglomerate. We’re grateful to finally be in charge of our own destiny. We set out with a solid plan to diversify Stereogum’s business, which currently derives all of its revenue from advertising at a time when 70% of all digital ad spending goes to Google, Facebook, and Amazon. We knew building a sustainable operation would not be easy. But since March, like so many other publications big and small, we have seen our advertising revenue plummet more than 50% because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerts and festivals, historically our biggest advertisers, have disappeared entirely.
God, I feel this. The ad market basically fell off a cliff in March and it’s been pretty terrifying. Stereogum have launched an Indiegogo to try and raise $250,000 to keep their website running.
Stereogum released an oral history of MySpace Music.
As a new decade begins, it seems worthwhile to look back at the website that defined not just the previous era, but the way we continue to consume and discuss music online, in order to contemplate both how we got to our present moment and what we have lost along the way. In Stereogum’s oral history of Myspace Music, twenty artists and former Myspace executives discuss their experience both using and working on the site, living through the bubble years, and why it couldn’t last forever.
Stereogum has been sold back to founder Scott Lapatine.
“It’s been a privilege to watch Stereogum grow over the past 18 years — the site saw record traffic in 2019 — and I’m thrilled about our next chapter as an independent, music-only publication. Also, launching later this year, a robust new user experience will be sure to delight and infuriate Stereogum’s dedicated commentariat in equal measure,” Lapatine said.
Congratulations Scott!