Feature / Music
Coalition of the Webzines

Who still reads webzines? Who still publishes them? In a world where Spotify, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace (again) are drowning users in new music, it’s clear that music is more important than ever - but music publications might not be. Of course, we at SPB feel differently, so we reached out to a bunch of fellow punk/alternative webzines to see how they’ve been feeling lately.

We asked each contributor about the changes they’ve seen happen to the music scene; the decline of print (and web) zines; the preferences of their online readers; thoughts on the future and more. The list of contributors is as follows (as well as SPB’s own senior staff, who took part too):

• Pastepunk (Jordan)
• GlueHC (Sean)
• Some Will Never Know (Pim)
• Easycore (Mario)
• Tiny Mix Tapes (Marvin)
• Pure Grain Audio (Chris)
• Teeth of the Divine (Erik & Mikko)
• Punknews.org (Adam)

You can read the individual interviews on the following pages, and we’ve also written up a summary below. Suffice to say, it’s a complex issue and we’re encouraged that webzines still have a place in music in 2013. What do you think?

Foundations: where did we come from?

Punknews.org as it looked when it started, versus today

A common theme from all interviewees was the changing landscape of online media. Jordan Baker, of the now-defunct Pastepunk (closed since we did our interview), pointed out how hard it is now to believe that “the MP3 barely existed on a commercial scale and word ‘blog’ hadn’t been coined yet” at the time of Pastepunk’s foundation. Erik of Teeth of the Divine described how he used to get “BOXES of physical CDs to review, now my email inbox is full of digital music to review”. It’s the same for us here at Scene Point Blank, which is probably a good thing in terms of our postal bill.

Adam White of Punknews.org points out the changing of the guard in terms of promotion: “bands relied more on record label websites and music publicists to disseminate info to those of us in the press. These days it’s a lot easier for bands and their fans to get the word out themselves”. Mario of Easycore agrees: “Any band can be their own PR rep or manager, and in turn, news and announcements can spread so much quicker - if you don't report on it quick enough, the news become "olds" and a webzine is rendered inefficient. Not only do musicians have access to better online tools, but so do the fans.”

"The MP3 barely existed on a commercial scale and word ‘blog’ hadn’t been coined"
- Jordan Baker, Pastepunk

Is there too much music out there now? Mikko of Teeth of the Divine spoke of his fatigue with new bands: “ten years ago I still had the will to actively search for new bands, listen to most of the promos and so forth, but not so today”. Chris Gonda of Pure Grain Audio points out the rise of “a whole new burgeoning industry surrounding digital music in and of itself (digital labels, digital album sites, streaming sites, streaming apps, etc.)”.

With all of this music easily available and with bands able to market directly to fans, is there still a place for traditional music publications in print? Or even on the web?

Did MP3s kill the print zine star?

Remember Napster?

We asked our panellists if they felt webzines were partly responsible for the decline of print music publications, and if webzines themselves were in decline. Many respondents spoke of sites like Tumblr and Facebook scooping up some of their traditional traffic, but Sean of GlueHC suggested that “there still seems to be a sense of legitimacy associated with proper websites”, adding that “those with good content, print or web, tend to stick around”. Jordan from Pastepunk mentioned the challenge of maintaining a daily site: “we’re a fairly small presence on the web, and every weekday is at least another 200 or so press emails. How can anyone stay on top on things? News is old online in three days”. This was made all the more poignant by Pastepunk’s closure not long after this interview, and indeed, Jordan later elaborated that “I have experienced more than a few moments where I felt like I could accomplish whatever I wanted with Pastepunk through our Twitter account and not bother with the rest of the site”.

Mario of Easycore is more positive, though: “One of my favourite features, which has proven to be very effective, is the connectivity between a webzine and its readers' social networks - this is a great way to maintain connected and something print-based magazines couldn't match.” Marvin Lim of Tiny Mix Tapes agrees that the digital crossover can be a potential benefit: “maybe (hopefully) what separates a webzine from a blog from whatever else will become increasingly blurred too.”

Mikko of Teeth of the Divine talks about the decline of online message boards: “going back 10 years, I followed a dozen different message boards. Now I think it's down to four and it's solely because I already made the effort to follow them actively years ago. I'd say Facebook has shielded us like some gated suburban community - if it's not pushed through our walls, it's not worth reading.” Adam of Punknews.org observes that “the glossy ad-driven mass market publications are going to have a toughter time justifying their costs than, say, Maximum Rocknroll will.”

What do people come to webzines for?

Is the multimedia of the web its best asset?

We were curious to know what other webzines found their readers wanting from a digital music publication. Pim of Some Will Never Know talked about the popularity of diverse pieces of their content: “the most popular post is a column called ‘Hardcore 2012 - A rallying cry’, the second two are reviews about Nirvana releases (for the live at the Paramount DVD we were the first media in the world to do a review I think), the American Nightmare European Tour Fall 2001 video I transfered from a VHS tape and uploaded and a guide on how to run a label from our DIY series”.

Jordan of Pastepunk has a more gut-feeling approach: “If our readers show any preference for anything, I’m not sure I would even notice. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve kept blinders on and have mostly resisted forays into creating my own multimedia content. My philosophy for at least the past five years has been to just write about stuff I like or find funny.” Adam of Punknews.org mentioned their podcast, but added “we mostly record those for our own amusement. Punknews is very much a site that people skim for mentions of their favourite bands, so that’s more important to our visitors than the type of media itself. Text seems to work best for us as it requires the least commitment from the reader”. Is there a theme emerging here? Editors are telling us they have too much new stuff coming in to cover, and readers seem to be asking for things that require the least of their time to consume.

"Text seems to work best for us as it requires the least commitment from the reader"
- Adam White, Punknews.org

Chris of Pure Grain Audio has more patient readers, perhaps: “While we love to write and push for top quality written content, we cannot deny the fact that our Audio and Video sections are the most popular.” Marvin of Tiny Mix Tapes weighed in with a helpful reminder on priorities, telling us how “a really popular review in our mind doesn't inherently make it more valuable than a multimedia post on an obscure artist who needs more exposure”.

What about the comments... do you have a community on your zine?

Comic via xkcd

The mantra of “never read the comments” can be painfully true in some cases. How about for webzines? Punknews’ community is famous for its memes, users and offshoots. Adam told us that “if we were starting from scratch we’d absolutely look to something like Disqus as many of the features both users and moderators have come to expect are baked into such products”. Mikko of Teeth of the Divine talks about the “pretty decent readership from the quality standpoint” their site has, while Erik adds “I wish bands and label folks would chime in a little more often, though. I spent 2-3 hours for that piece, so a little ‘hey thanks for the review’ wouldn’t hurt”.

Everyone talked about problems with spam comments, with Pim of SWNK sharing their novel solution: ask would-be users to answer a question about Bad Brains before they can post. Not everybody felt they needed a gaggle of users underneath each post, though: Jordan of Pastepunk says that “I’ve always presented our content as a ‘take it or leave it’ kind of thing, and while I obviously value the opinion of our readers, I never wished that element would become part of Pastepunk’s identity”. He talked about the instant-gratification of real-time reactions from Twitter as being equally interesting instead.

Where do we go now?

Is the dead tree press the future of music publishing?

It’s not clear what the future of digital media is, let alone digital publishing. We asked our panellists what they thought the future was for them: would they branch out to new platforms? Or fall back to print?

Many people spoke about the importance of building mobile-friendly webpages. Marvin of Tiny Mix Tapes pointed out the risks of “social” publishing: “as the web becomes even more ‘social’, seems like web publishing aims to provide content that will spread quickly as a way to embed itself in social conversations. These days, that means linkbait articles at the expense of critical analysis. But I don't think that's inherently negative, and also don't believe the two are mutually exclusive”. Adam of Punknews.org found similar challenges: “I’m hesitant to change our writing style to cater to the trends in social sharing. While it may be good click-bait, I’d feel silly writing unnecessary and arbitrary lists like “The Top 7 Reasons The Next Bad Religion Album Will Blow You Away” so we’ll do our best to avoid playing that game”.

Mikko of Teeth of the Divine talked about cross-platform zines: “the goal is to make the experience as painless as possible to the reader, so that they have to put minimal effort in checking us out and finding the content they want. No matter what device they are using”.

"People will still crave a commercially unbiased opinion.”
- Jordan Baker, Pastepunk

Chris of Pure Grain Audio wasn’t tempted by print: “I don't think we'd ever consider experimenting with print. While super cool and offering a somewhat ‘retro’ feel (scary to say), print is not as viable of a business”.

Mario of Easycore is uncertain but excited: “with so many useful sites, such as Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and all of the social networks, I think we're at the peak of what's currently achievable, though I can't wait to see what's next”.

The last word should, perhaps, go to Jordan: “as great as the music recommendation engines and algorithms are in the online music world and social media context, there has to be some human validation, and word of mouth only goes so far, especially now that we are in a world built around our own silos of interest. People will still crave a commercially unbiased opinion.”

Closing thoughts

It’s perhaps a little starry-eyed to claim we’re in some brave new world where music is better than it ever was. Sure, there’s plenty more of it out there and it’s simpler and cheaper to hear new stuff (and old) whenever you want.

The role of music publications is a little unclear right now: are we here to drive traffic to third-party services like Bandcamp, Spotify and Facebook? Are we an antidote to those things?

From Scene Point Blank’s perspective, we’re fairly clear: our editor Loren writes: “while some of our reviews that are obscure today may not generate traffic, it's an important archive about independent music”. Similarly, I’m hopeful for the future too: “our value is curating the stuff that's out there and recommending things for a relatively niche audience. If you can listen to any record you like whenever you like, that's cool - but it's an enormous amount of choice. Good publications can help sort that stuff and point you to the real goldmines out there”.

Hardly any of us in the webzine trade are in it for the money, but for the love of sharing good music. None of us really know what’s coming next, but as long as people want to hear about what we think is cool, and we adapt and change as the technical expectations evolve, then we think there’s still a place for us.

--

What do you think? Why do you keep reading webzines? We’d love to hear from the audience’s perspective, too.

Jordan Baker - Pastepunk

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Jordan A. Baker, Editor/Owner of Pastepunk

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

Pastepunk started in October 1998 when I was a freshman at the University of Maryland. The original idea behind the site was to create a webzine in a similar format to Maximum Rock N Roll (MRR) with columns, interviews, scene reports, reviews and ads. It never quite worked out that way, but as the site grew in its early years it covered the Long Island (where I grew up) and DC punk and hardcore scenes with great detail. Coverage went ‘national’ around 2001. I was motivated to the start the site during my first semester of college because I found myself to be a somewhat lonely straight-edge kid learning the ropes of a new scene while being surrounded by a stereotypical college drinking environment. I was looking for an escape, an outlet and hoping to find a comfort zone.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

It’s hard to believe that when Pastepunk first started the MP3 barely existed on a commercial scale and word “blog” hadn’t been coined yet. The changeover to digital downloads, streams, niche vinyl-oriented labels and the advent of social media is something on a magnitude that sometimes leaves me speechless. (doesn’t happen often!). The gatekeeper has been slayed, but it’s not altogether clear that bands looking to earn a living wage from their music are any better off, and the financial risks/rewards of running a label seem even more acute . The sheer overload of new music has had a profound effect on own my internal struggle to keep Pastepunk active. When someone can subscribe to a service like Rdio or Spotify for $5 a month and have access to some 18-20 million songs, the role of a webzine or a blog is to become a shepherd and it can be a constant struggle to break through the noise. The other major change for me has been witnessing how much more effort bands and labels must go through to market themselves. The expectations are enormous, compounded through each tweet, Facebook post or Tumblr page. Everything is “now, now, now”... I know that’s not endemic to just the music world, but it’s all consuming.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

I would pin the decimation of the print industry on the internet in general, not just webzines. The internet has been a grand time-consuming monster and has fundamentally changed how people consume their entertainment. The entire distribution network for print publications is a shell of itself and financially, it makes little sense to start or maintain a print publication if you’re below a particular readership/subscriber threshold, and even then, some of the more popular magazines like Alternative Press, Revolver and Outburn seem like they get thinner and thinner by the month. The only print music magazines that I still read are specialty publications like The Big Takeover, which only comes out a few times a year and comes crammed with 200 pages of incredible content, or Razorcake, which is the still kickin’ ‘from the ashes’ offshoot of the late, great Flipside. A print zine can still exist, but I think only very rare contexts, such as the long-dormant zine Rumpshaker returning for its 6th issue, which turned out be more like a book of long-germinating material, than a traditional new-content magazine. There’s a different audience involved with a project like that. I still subscribe to Alternative Press (have been a regular reader since 1995), but I relate to it less and less. It’s a weird deal when the only thing that largely excites you in a magazine are its retrospective, historical and flashback pieces.

I think webzines themselves are on the downslope as well. It takes an enormous amount of time and effort to maintain a daily site and there’s very little advertising money available to support sites anymore. We went entirely ad-free in January 2011 - officially putting ourselves back into the hobby category with no real obligations to anyone else. With the whole music overload thing, there’s simply too much information. We’re a fairly small presence on the web, and every weekday is at least another 200 or so press emails. How can anyone stay on top on things? News is old online in three days. I know that I have experienced more than a few moments where I felt like I could accomplish whatever I wanted with Pastepunk through our Twitter account and not bother with the rest of the site. A final aspect is that bands and labels are taking on greater roles in creating content, assembling bigger and better album trailers, more elaborate promotions, and much like professional sports teams, “controlling the message”. It can be hard to compete...

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

We’re sort of an odd duck I would say among webzines since Pastepunk is now in the elder stage of “posting whatever the hell we want whenever we get around to it.” Outside of our contributing writer James Hepplewhite, it’s just me, and I’m a full-time attorney for a federal agency and married father of two young boys. If our readers show any preference for anything, I’m not sure I would even notice. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve kept blinders on and have mostly resisted forays into creatig my own multimedia content. My philosophy for at least the past five years has been to just write about stuff I like or find funny. It’s all editorial commentary more or less, mostly light-hearted, but occasionally withering, in the context of the cloistered independent music community. I am immensely grateful for the ability to embed content such as YouTube videos or Bandcamp/Soundcloud streams. I’ve always been a person who has been driven to tell others what I am listening to or find worthwhile and there’s no better way to do that than put that content right in front of the reader.

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Pastepunk has never really embraced a commenting community. For almost a decade we didn’t have any comments on the site and tried to direct readers to become members on our Mods Under Protest message board, which has had a close-knit group of people for a long, long time. Unlike Punknews or Absolutepunk we’ve never been an objective news site, we’ve been a pure fanzine and so I am not surprised we never grew a large community aspect. I’ve always presented our content as a ‘take it or leave it’ kind of thing, and while I obviously value the opinion of our readers, I never wished that element would become part of Pastepunk’s identity. Just this year we added Twitter and Facebook integration in our posts and the Twitter aspect has helped drive extra traffic to the site and grown the Twitter account. I want to note that some of my favorite Pastepunk-related interactions occur over Twitter and Facebook now - the real-time personal feedback from when content goes live has a thrilling appeal.

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

I wish I had a thoughtful answer about the future of web publishing, but I try hard not to think far ahead about these things. I do know that there is still a viable market for the written word and that people crave high-quality writing and media content. If you’re a sports fan, one can look no farther than the immediate success of the long-form journalism site Grantland in seeing the demand for top-notch sports/pop-culture journalism. The musical jungle is only getting denser and publications will be there to help chop through the thicket. As great as the music recommendation engines and algorithms are in the online music world and social media context, there has to be some human validation, and word of mouth only goes so far, especially now that we are in a world built around our own silos of interest. People will still crave a commercially unbiased opinion. What Spotify is doing with artist and label focused apps is pretty interesting and I see this model spreading elsewhere, where publications can help take their curator role to the next logical destination. One of the neat new innovations to spring recently came from Bandcamp’s Discoverinator, which allows you to sort through “best selling”, “newly added”, and “artist-recommended” categories (and then sorted by genre). The “artist-recommended” tab is most compelling to me because it it seems innate that we would trust the crowdsourced judgment of a wide variety of artists. I have spent a lot of time cruising through that section and finding new music to enjoy. As for print - I’ll always have my accordion folder full of MRR, Punk Planet, Law of Inertia, and Flipside zines to page through when I feel like revisiting my teenage years.

8. Anything you’d like to add?

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this discussion. Pastepunk turns 14 in just a couple of months and I cannot overstate what it’s like to have a hobby for so long that has been so fulfilling, both privately and publicly. Life features a never-ending soundtrack and every day we’re just looking around for the right playlist.

Sean - GlueHC.com

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Sean / GlueHC.com / Editor

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

Site was launched September 1st, 2011 with the purpose of offering daily news specifically for fans of hardcore.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

Haven't really been at it long enough to see much change, but it's always surprising which bands / labels make an effort to get info out there and those that seem to want to make their news hard to find.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer? 

It seems like a lot of folks are opting for Tumblr, but there still seems to be a sense of legitimacy associated with proper websites. Most of the print magazines out there seem to be suffering, but in many of the cases it seems due to a lack of quality content. Those with good content, print or web, tend to stick around.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

Like I said, our focus is anything and everything related to hardcore and that's it. By focusing specifically on this, we're able to provide what I hope our readers are looking for most of the time.

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

It's been pretty easy as long as we're able to catch spam.

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

We've had some readers request an iPhone app, but we'll have to see if we can find the time to create one. We get a lot of positive feedback on the mobile version of our site.

8. Anything you’d like to add?

Thanks for asking for my opinion!

Pim - Some Will Never Know

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Hi, I’m Pim and I started Some Will Never Know (or SWNK in short) a couple of years ago. Yes, that’s a reference to the Only Living Witness song indeed. A band more people should know about.

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

The first paper zine (88 pages) came out in 2008. The second one (100 pages) in 2010. Those were done by myself, but these days SWNK is an international online zine. No more waiting to collect all the interviews, but simply publish them as they come in. Since I’m a webdeveloper it made sense for me to do a website too. Anyway, these days I’m not running the show alone anymore, we’ve got a great bunch of people from all over the world contributing at the moment.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

That’s a tough question... I would love to say that when I started values / discussions etc were more important, but that already was in decline back then. Everything became a lot faster. Not only the downloading of a release even before it’s officially out, but also the time people to actually read anything. I like to publish lengthy interviews, but sometimes I wonder how many people really read it. 

But in general it hasn’t impacted the reporting at all. We still put up those lengthy interviews now and then. And besides that we just haven’t been around long enough to be really impacted by anything ;) Or we’ve been blind to it haha.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

The biggest problem I had when I was selling my zines were the postage costs. That killed it, not webzines. There was more than enough interest and people seemed to love the zines, but anything outside of Europe was just waaaay too pricey and since I couldn’t offer overseas distro’s too much of a discount I sold less of the last edition than I hoped.

As for webzines dropping off, I don’t know. Facebook has replaced certain aspects of webzines. Forums are being visited less regularly, bands post their news on Facebook before it gets posted to webzines and even events are being published on Facebook. And since everyone is on Facebook anyway... But Facebook can’t replace the value of an in-depth interview, or a good review etc. 

Just like a webzine can’t beat a good paper zine. Paper zines are great.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

If I take a look at our most popular posts it’s pretty diverse. The most popular post is a column called ‘Hardcore 2012 - A rallying cry’, the second two are reviews about Nirvana releases (for the live at the Paramount DVD we were the first media in the world to do a review I think), the American Nightmare European Tour Fall 2001 video I transfered from a VHS tape and uploaded and a guide on how to run a label from our DIY series.

Not a single interview in there, while I always like to think that in-depth interviews is what we do best haha. Oh well ;) There’s also the forums, the showlist and the bookers database though that people seem to like.

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

I don’t think the online commenting stuff didn’t change much at all. We had some troubles with spammers in the beginning. But the moment we added a question to the registration form (about the Bad Brains) and installed some anti-spam stuff that was history too. No annoying people yet, luckily. Stay classy internet.

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

We just came from print ;) But yeah I wouldn’t rule out that print could one day return in some form to SWNK. I think I speak for all of us at SWNK if I say that we LOVE paper zines, most of us used to (or still do) run a zine. It just takes a shitload of time to finish one. Maybe one do we could do a book, combining the best interviews, columns etc or something. That would be awesome, no idea if people would be into it. But that’s an idea that’s in the back of my mind for sure.

As for support for mobile devices. The site should work on most mobile devices, but the next version of the site will be totally responsive for sure. Which means we’ll start designing and coding with mobile in mind from the start and optimize for different mobile, tablet and desktop sizes. No native apps though. And no Spotify.

8. Anything you’d like to add?

Funny to have the tables turned for once. If people are reading this, feel free to come check us out at www.swnk.org sometime. Join the conversation. 

Support paper zines (Law & Order, Just Say Yo, #Hardcore etc etc), they always will be cooler than us webzines :) Aside from that, good luck with this feature and the site and thanks for sharing the spotlight!

Mario - Easycore

1. What is your name/publication/title?

My name is Mario and I run the majority of www.xEasycorex.net alongside a few other very talented photographers and reviewers.

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

The website originally started back in 2008 as a simple blog purely with music downloads and the occasional video, then I joined and began turning Easycore.net into a full-fledged webzine in late-2010. Later we developed into a full-team with different roles. Our sole intent has always been to expose local bands from all over the world who might otherwise not have the opportunity to reach all of our readers. I've always felt that once a band is well-established enough, any website will cover them, but when baby bands are just starting out and truly have something to offer, then they're the ones who stand to gain from the exposure, and not the website - that's where we come in.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

I'd have to say that one of the biggest changes in the music industry has been ease of accessibility. Any band can be their own PR rep or manager, and in turn, news and announcements can spread so much quicker - if you don't report on it quick enough, the news become "olds" and a webzine is rendered inefficient. Not only do musicians have access to better online tools, but so do the fans.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

Definitely. Not only are webzines usually more up to date, but much more accessible and free of charge, for its readers and sometimes staff. I think webzines will be around for as long as the Internet and music will be, but it's always good to push the boundaries. One of my favourite features, which has proven to be very effective, is the connectivity between a webzine and its readers' social networks - this is a great way to maintain connected and something print-based magazines couldn't match.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

I always see a peak in visitors when we post multimedia content, particularly exclusives, but tour and new release announcements are very popular, depending on the band really.

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

We've used Disqus from the beginning, which is great because it lets you comment on posts anonymously or with various other accounts, but we've always tried to encourage discussions. I also try to engage with our readers over our social pages whenever I can. I don't think commenting systems have developed much over time, but they've become very well-integrated allowing users to post without necessarily creating an account beforehand.

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

With so many useful sites, such as Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and all of the social networks, I think we're at the peak of what's currently achievable, though I can't wait to see what's next. I think there's still room to tie up some loose ends in regards to providing all-in-one solutions for artists, so I think we'll stick with digital resources for now. Whenever possible, I make sure to provide mobile-friendly content because a huge portion of traffic comes from mobile devices nowadays, but I don't think an app dedicated for the website would be entirely necessary. Though I hope and predict that the future will see better optimisation of these services for mobile devices.

8. Anything you’d like to add?

Just support your local scene, it's how all of the bands you listen to start out. Go to shows and support honest music.

Marvin Lin - Tiny Mix Tapes

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Marvin Lin / Tiny Mix Tapes / Editor-in-Chief/Publisher

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

I started Tiny Mix Tapes in 2001 with some "real-life" friends, just as an outlet to talk about music at a time when we were all just beginning to start our lives in other areas of the US (due to college and other reasons). It started out purely as a hobby/passion, with no other intent in mind.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

Biggest shift by far is our readership's move toward digital media as the primary source for music listening/reading/etc. It's changed every single aspect of how we do things, from the type of coverage to the dynamic of our publishing.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

They are obviously related, but I don't think that webzines are necessarily the cause of print media's decline. Perhaps the relative success of webzines has resulted in more writers pursuing venues online for their writing, but it's all more symptomatic of a much larger cultural and technological shift that's beyond the desires of web editors/publishers. As for the future: it's likely that there will continue to be more places to talk about and listen to music as we move forward. Whether webzines start dropping off in favor of something else depends on their ability and willingness to adapt. Maybe (hopefully) what separates a webzine from a blog from whatever else will become increasingly blurred too.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

Our readers still mostly come for our criticism (e.g., our music reviews), but that's probably due in part because that's how TMT gained its reputation. But a really popular review in our mind doesn't inherently make it more valuable than a multimedia post on an obscure artist who needs more exposure.

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Aside from our mixtapes section, which is almost completely run by our readers, we don't have much interaction. It's pretty archaic. We've talked about implementing a commenting system periodically throughout the years, but we always end up deciding against it and are trying to figure out different ways to involve our readers. (We'll be resurrecting our short-lived debates section in the near future.)

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

As the web becomes even more "social," seems like web publishing aims to provide content that will spread quickly as a way to embed itself in social conversations. These days, that means linkbait articles at the expense of critical analysis. But I don't think that's inherently negative, and also don't believe the two are mutually exclusive. I think it's healthy that we're all trying to figure out ways to provide content to an increasingly social audience. The challenge, at least for us, is to find a way to do that without sacrificing what we care about most. As for other platforms, we are definitely planning to cater more toward our social networks, and we already have a mobile version of the site. We'd never rule out doing print, but I'd personally only want to do it if we can find a creative way to use the medium that can't be replicated on the internet.

Chris Gonda - Pure Grain Audio

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Chris Gonda / PureGrainAudio.com / Editor/CEO/Founder

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

PureGrain started way back in March of 2005. It begun with just two people with the desire to write about and share their opinions on the rock and metal music they love(d)! 

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it? The largest change is an obvious one - digital music. While it was already around and being made increasingly popular/available by peer to peer programs like Napster, Kazaa, etc. this in and of itself has single handily change label business models, how bands write, record and release content and even given rise to a whole new burgeoning industry surrounding digital music in and of itself (digital labels, digital album sites, steaming sites, streaming apps, etc.)

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

I would agree that the decline in print sales can for sure be partly contributed to the rise in webzines. But there are also other factors... take Smartphones and Tablets for example. 2 of the largest growing industries in the world, both of which allow for people to better and faster consume personally curated content right at their fingertips, any time, anywhere.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

While we love to write and push for top quality written content, we cannot deny the fact that our Audio and Video sections are the most popular. As such we strive to fuse content types and for example, with an interview, include not only the written transcript, but also videos, an audio portion (if available) and images. That said, MP3s, music & lyric videos, video interviews and to some extent, podcasts are all the top faves!

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Wow, these have changed in leaps and bounds. While some CMS (content management systems) like Textpattern or Word press have their own native systems, it is FAR more effective to integrate a 3rd party platform like Facebook or Disqus. The built-in extensive social features in and of themselves make it worthwhile!

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

No, I don't think we'd ever consider experimenting with print. While super cool and offering a somewhat "retro" feel (scary to say), print is not as viable of a business. What we are doing and will continue to do is offer our content across as many mobile/digital platforms as possible.

8. Anything you’d like to add?

The world is evolving at an increasingly rapid rate and both technology and content consumption are no exceptions. Now more than ever, adaption, experimentation and a general awareness of new technologies, user trends and more are truly key to any site's future successes.

Erik & Mikko - Teeth of the Divine

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Erik: I'm Erik and I'm one of the owners of TeethoftheDivine.com

Mikko: My name is Mikko and I'm the other guy responsible. 

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine? 

Mikko: If we count Digital Metal dot com from which Teeth evolved, that began in 1999 or 2000. I was asked to write some reviews for the site after I had been posting to the site's message board for a few years. The call to the majors came up in 2002 I think. Throughout the years I found myself being involved more and more with Digital Metal's daily business. After the site was hacked years later, put back up and hacked again, without much input from the site's original owners, we were forced to run the site as a message board for a while. At some point the three of us [Erik, Chris (the guy in charge) and me] decided to create a new site on our own and have the free reign that we were lacking. It was discussed for a year or so until I finally committed to the idea and built the website's backbone in five days back in early 2008.

Erik: Like Mikko said, I joined the fray back in 2000 when it was digitalmetal.com, and when things went to shit with a site hack, we just tried to keep things running as a forum/message board until Mikko rebuilt the site, and we sort of put an end to Digital Metal and carried on our own. Within the last year, Chris resigned due to being busy with everything and handed the name and the domain over to Mikko and I. To sum it all up, Teeth opened its business around May 2008.

Mikko: As for the intent... I don't know what it was originally. It isn't money, that's for sure.

Erik: Metal.

Mikko: That's an educated guess.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

Mikko: I'd say that there's a hell of a lot more bands these days, pouring in through doors and windows, and they're all bombarding your senses with new releases. It can get a bit overwhelming at times. Ten years ago I still had the will to actively search for new bands, listen to most of the promos and so forth, but not so today. I think it's great that people are playing and making music but at the same time, not all of it has to be made public from the get-go.

Erik: The Internet, Facebook, Myspace, bandcamp etc. All those have changed how bands get their music to the fans and also to the critics. Music can be released digitally now with no hard copies at all. There was a time when I would get BOXES of physical CDs to review, now my email inbox is full of digital music to review. I bet the Teeth of the Divine email gets 5-10 review requests a day via email/bandcamp etc. There’s no way we can cover all of it.

Mikko: I'm not even sure if we would want to cover all of it, even if we could.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

Mikko: There's definitely something going on but luckily our livelihood isn't dependent on our website, so in the end, it's not something we lose our sleep over. I think social media and other forms of entertainment in general are making it a lot of harder for people to visit more “traditional” websites nowadays. They want an instant fix rather than commit their valuable time to browse some website more in-depth and connect with the material in some meaningful way. Going back 10 years, I followed a dozen different message boards. Now I think it's down to four and it's solely because I already made the effort to follow them actively years ago. And sometimes I struggle to visit those too. Same goes for general sites I suppose. Sure part of it's due to becoming older and whatnot, but I'd say Facebook has shielded us like some gated suburban community -- if it's not pushed through our walls, it's not worth reading.

Erik: Yeah I think that’s pretty obvious that’s the case. I used to write for Metal Maniacs and Unrestrained Magazines, and they both no longer exist. And even then I frequented just a handful of respected webzines, but now, any Tom, Dick or Harry can start a blog and be a credible journalist.

Mikko: Hey! At least I don't call myself a journalist.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

Erik: I think reviews are our bread and butter. We’ve developed such stable and consistent relationship with our regular readers that if we went too far away from that, with podcast, videos and such, we’d lose them.

Mikko: I think variety in content is always worth at least a thought or two, so long as it doesn't fuck up the original reason (reviews, interviews) why people come to your site in the first place. I think people expect certain things from us and if we were able to cater to those expectations with some new stuff, I don't think our regulars would mind. 

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Erik: We were late in the commenting arena as we only introduced commenting a while after the site launched. We try to moderate the comments mainly for spam bots or the occasional trolls, but I like seeing feedback to the articles. I wish bands and label folks would chime in a little more often, though. I spent 2-3 hours for that piece, so a little “hey thanks for the review” wouldn’t hurt.

Mikko: Or “fuck you.” I think our site has attracted a pretty decent readership from a quality stand point. The active ones seem well versed in all sorts of music, so while people have opinions---sometimes extreme ones---they don't seem close minded at all. That's a plus. Unless Erik's talking about Christian metalcore, of course. So instead of having a bunch of people in a circlejerk shouting "That shit suuuuucks, MEEEHTUL, brah" we get to hear a bit more balanced and level-headed points of view. In similar vein, I'd like to thank our lovable staff members who grace the site with plenty of perspective on their own too.

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

Mikko: I've been meaning to do a redesign for ages now but unfortunately my efforts to just sit down and do it have been in vain. I suck. But yeah, the goal is to make the experience as painless as possible to the reader, so that they have to put minimal effort in checking us out and finding the content they want. No matter what device they are using. In the best case scenario, the site would be constantly changing and evolving, absorbing new things as they become relevant and losing those that are not. I think we toyed doing a print magazine at one point and as a materialistic bastard, I don't think that's a bad idea at all. Sure, it would only sell ten copies but it's not like we're running the operation to get rich (or die trying) anyway.

Erik: I'll let Mikko's answer stand here as far as the tech side of things go. But I've always been interested in doing a print version of Teeth of the Divine at some point, you know with a free CD of staff picked music and regular features. We’ll see...

8. Anything you’d like to add?

Erik: Teeth of the Divine is a labor of love for metal. There’s no pay, no glory and often no thanks. But we do it because we love metal and we want others to love metal. Come check us out at www.teethofthedivine.com

Adam White - Punknews.org

1. What is your name/publication/title?

I’m Adam White. I’m the managing editor of Punknews.org.

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

Punknews grew out of a print-zine Aubin Paul was publishing out of Toronto back in 1998 called “Anti-Manifesto” (after the “How to Clean Everything” era Propagandhi tune). By 1999 that project morphed into the website. There wasn’t a whole lot of quality punk rock resources online at that point so the early Punknews was one of the only websites aggregating and sharing punk music news. The model was in retrospect pretty similar to the early tech-news site Slashdot.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

The online tools bands have access to have grown quite a bit. With quick publishing platforms and social media communities available there are avenues to rapidly create a presence and start interacting with people that didn’t exist a few years ago. There’s so much less friction around media hosting in particular given that YouTube, BandCamp and SoundCloud (et al) are fast, easy to use and for the most part free.

In the era before social media era most music and video was hosted on band or label websites directly, which was both costly and more technically difficult. The hurdles were enough so that bands relied more on record label websites and music publicists to disseminate info to those of us in the press. These days it’s a lot easier for bands and their fans to get the word out themselves.

As such, the curation role that the publicist and label once played has become cloudier for us. Not to diminish the good work a lot of them do, but those affiliations are no longer a major driver of what bands we’re covering.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer?

I think the decline of print has less to do with webzines and more to do with the overall trend towards online consumption of information. I’m not convinced it’s a zero sum game in any case, and there may be a role for niche, distinct print to co-exist with the web. I suspect the glossy ad-driven mass market publications are going to have a toughter time justifying their costs than, say, Maximum Rocknroll will. 

Are webzines themselves dropping off now? Only in the sense that with so many social networks and link sharing services no one publication gets to sequester their audience’s attention. Their individual pieces of writing live and die in the wider online ecosystem.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

I’d love to say podcasts, but we mostly record those for our own amusement. Punknews is very much a site that people skim for mentions of their favourite bands, so that’s more important to our visitors than the type of media itself. Text seems to work best for us as it requires the least commitment from the reader. Audio of course is important given what we talk about. Our readers are far more comfortable with streams these days as in the past when anything other than downloadable MP3s was seen as a bit of a cheat. Videos, at least those we producer ourselves, are a rarity we save for special occasions. 

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Commenting systems have come a long way. If we were starting from scratch we’d absolutely look to something like Disqus as many of the features both users and moderators have come to expect are baked into such products. That said, at our traffic level and established community those freebies turn costly and it’s not something we’ve been able to transition to

It’s never been our intention to run a message board, let alone police one. For years aside from removing things that were racist or homophobic we largely left the comment sections to those who used them. While that decision certainly hasn’t helped our reputation at times, it has kept our attention focused where we’ve wanted it. 

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

Mobile is of course incredibly important, so ensuring that content is mobile-accessible (not necessarily as an app) is a concern. It will inevitably be the majority of our traffic sooner rather than later.
As for social, having sharable content is obviously essential, and we’ll have a presence wherever the network suits our audience and frequency of updates. However I’m hesitant to change our writing style to cater to the trends in social sharing. While it may be good click-bait, I’d feel silly writing unnecessary and arbitrary lists like “The Top 7 Reasons The Next Bad Religion Album Will Blow You Away” so we’ll do our best to avoid playing that game.


8. Anything you’d like to add?

Nope. I've bored you all quite enough.

Matt & Loren - Scene Point Blank

1. What is your name/publication/title?

Matt: Matt Andrews, developer/designer and occasional writer at Scene Point Blank.

Loren: Loren Green, editor in chief.

2. When did you start up? What was your intent in starting a webzine?

Matt: SPB has been around for almost ten years now (our approximate anniversary is this March). The site was started on the AFI messageboard back in 2003. Of the four original founders, I'm the only member still active with the site - lots has changed. We started out wanting to cover hardcore and punk (lots of early praise for the Blood Brothers, for example) and provide an antidote for Pitchfork's "hipster" reviewing (as we perceived it then). We also wanted to offer unique multi-person reviews, which we still (infrequently) publish.

Loren: I came on board later as a staff writer in late 2007. I moved up to editor at the start of 2011.

3. In the time you've been publishing, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the music scene/industry? How has this impacted your reporting of it?

Matt: For me, it has to be the sheer amount of music available now. Obviously the internet was a big factor even in 2003 on how we consumed music, but this wasn't too long after Napster et al and listening to music online was still a fairly novel concept: nothing like Spotify existed, meaning that new music was perhaps more valuable (at least, to me) since you weren't constantly inundated with it. Today I find it quite hard to keep up with new music, perhaps because there's so much out there. 

Loren: I think Matt's answer pretty much nails it. The biggest change I've seen the past two years is the rise in social media, which cuts out a lot of middlemen in the industry, be it on a PR level or in terms of releasing your music.

4. Do you think the decline in sales of print-based music magazines is partly due to the rise of webzines? Do you think webzines themselves are now dropping off in favour of something newer? 

Matt: I don't necessarily think webzines are causing the decline in print music publications, but I'd be prepared to bet that sites like Pitchfork are equally (or perhaps more) influential to long-running music magazines like NME or Rolling Stone etc. Print in general is suffering at the hands of the internet, so the real value now is in publications which can sift through the tons of new releases and tell you what's good. I do worry, though, that webzines themselves are beginning to decline in favour of socially-powered music services: why care what some stranger thinks of the new Mogwai album when you can just see what your friends are recommending on Spotify, ThisIsMyJam, and tons of other sites?

Loren: I'd say Matt hit this one too. In a parallel with what he said about the current access to new music (in question #3), information about new music is similarly abundant.

5. In terms of your readers, do they show any preference for any specific types of content? Do they favour multimedia features (mp3s, podcasts, videos, etc) or more traditional content types?

Matt: We've toyed with the idea of more multimedia content (I still remember convincing Ted Leo to record a jingle for the "SPB Podcast" which never happened, back in 2008 or something) but it never really got off the ground. In general our features perform pretty well, since they're fairly exclusive, and our reviews are good as archive content as well as new release coverage, too. News is perhaps less strong since other sites do it better (ones with the word "news" in the domain name, perhaps) and again, social networks like Twitter mean that fans these days follow the bands and labels they like directly and get the news at the source. 

6. How have online commenting systems developed since you've been publishing? Have you taken any steps to “manage” the community of fans posting on your site?

Matt: We've never had a massively vocal userbase, although we've recently switched to Disqus commenting which we're hoping will increase this. We're lucky; we don't tend to get comment threads full of trolls and abusive flamewars (just spam content instead...). We did have a messageboard where we wanted conversations to take place but this died off slowly till we made the call to make it staff-only (we use it for organising content).

7. What do you think the future is for web publishing? Do you have any plans to cater for users on different platforms (mobile devices, social networks, apps like Spotify)? Would you ever consider experimenting with print?

Matt: I'm quite keen to make sure the site is mobile-friendly -- traffic numbers for portable devices rise every month. Apps probably don't work for content sites like ours (a good website is usually compelling enough). In my day job I work for a major news organisation and we're constantly wondering about the future of web publishing there too. I honestly don't know what's going to happen but my sense is that our value is curating the stuff that's out there and recommending things for a relatively niche audience. If you can listen to any record you like whenever you like, that's cool -- but it's an enormous amount of choice. Good publications can help sort that stuff and point you to the real goldmines out there.

Loren: Niche is definitely the way to put it. While some of our reviews that are obscure today may not generate traffic, it's an important archive about independent music. As for print, we have a couple of zinesters on staff, and our fingers are crossed that we can create some kind of physical release at least once to complement the website.

Let's fish for getting that online commenting going right now. Readers, would you like to see a one-time Scene Point Blank zine available?