The Current State of Awesome
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Kibbe here. I've been meaning to do an actual update on the state of this space for awhile. At this rate I figure there's no better time than the present, right? New year new you or whatever? lol
Anyway. Rocko and I started SKOA almost 7 years ago to the day (January 19th 2010 to be exact), which still blows my mind. A lot has changed in both the industry and all of our lives. Never in a million years did any of us think that total strangers would be as eager to geek out with us over the artists we dug up to share and yet here you all are across the internets still frequently stopping by to see what new things we've come across.
Since SKOA's inception I've watched a lot of our "blogger buddies" slowly disappear and shut down. This is not something I have ever considered doing, so this is not what this little check-in is for. You'll notice we no longer run ads on the site, too. I decided about a year ago that it didn't really make sense to ruin the user experience if we weren't going to treat this like an actual revenue stream.
Having said that, since I pay out of pocket for hosting and do not run ads, I am going to change things up a bit here. I'm honestly so excited to have removed the pressure of acquiring a certain number of clicks because that's what nearly killed the site when we got caught up in the Blooger Boom in 2011-2012. Part of the reason why the site went completely silent for awhile was we all got tired of trying to compete. In addition to our personal lives changing quite a bit, it simply stopped being fun.
Well, I'm ready to have some fun again but this time on my terms.
Not 100% what exactly that will look like other than there will be a lot more music being shared here than there has been in a good while. You may have seen me dabble with YouTube as I tried to create my way out of my battle with depression (which I seem to have successfully made it to the other side of) in addition to all these fun Spotify playlists in the sidebar >>. I don't have an unlimited amount of time to work on this like I did when we started the site (I was unemployed in the recession after all). That said, I think there's value to the music community by being a space that can take as many chances on baby bands as I see fit and I love sharing new music as I find it, so I see this as a win-win for all of us. I I currently have a donate page set up if you feel compelled to support this space. I may take it down. I may set up a Patreon. I have no idea honestly. I'm going to focus on the music for now and we'll work out that stupid money stuff later. Cool?
Speaking of "we", I'm also hoping with this new approach I'll be taking with the site that the sharing will go two-ways. I'd like to make this feel like more of a communal space than just a sounding board, so as I rework things here, please leave comments, tweets, etc. as you see fit. I will do my best to keep up with you all and share when you send me great stuff.
I look forward to venturing down this new path with you guys. Thank you for continuing to be not just some, but all kinds of awesome.
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kibbe!
