Our first million took us six and a half years, the second, too and a half, so the current growth is so exciting. We don't go for self celebration, we don't put ourselves about in the supposed right places and we don't entertain the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. We dallied with Spotify for a short period for the Listening To This Week Playlist and learned that we had been right to ignore it for so long. It does nothing for the type of artists that we cover. Great music goes down a big black hole.
To think that this place started from the ashes of Anything Should Happen as a reaction to so many people in our orbit saying all new music was crap. It was only ever planned to be a small thing, but it grew and grew. The LTTW playlist has helped, but that wasn't meant to be big either, just a way to cover great artists that didn't release EPs or Albums and to discover those that we may have missed or were planning to go in that direction.
We are always primarily about the artist. Wanting people to discover new and under appreciated artists and their albums. We still are a longer format Review site. Door openers if you like and we have a loyal engaged audience that is happy to be the word of mouth for many of these musicians and labels. We listen to so much music that we don't cover to get to the stuff that we, and hope you will, like. We get caught between two stools at times.
We have little interest in the streamers, but use Bandcamp, Soundcloud and You Tube. The former is particular liked by us because it allows listeners to hear more of an artist's work and hopefully buy it. We are not one to bang the drum for Physical Releases, although we understand those that do. Most musicians have other main jobs, money is tight, the cost of living is horrendous, so we believe all should be treated equally. We do, though, think that the demise of the CD is really sad and believe that its time will come again.
We don't believer that artists should be cajoled to releasing music physically, but are happy if they do. Not releasing physical product should not be a barrier for a splendid album. Indeed we get offered a lot of physical albums, particularly from abroad, and decline because we don't want them to spend the little money they have on ridiculous postage charges. I say that as someone who has a massive physical collection, largely paid for over 50 years. A lot of it that I will rarely listen to because I am playing the latest new album that needs the attention.
That's why we don't do many Best Of lists. Because we rarely cover or listen to the old. Talking of Best Ofs, our 100 Best Albums Of 2025 begins tomorrow. There will be an introduction in the morning then 10 posted each evening over the next 10 days as a countdown. There will also be a Best 20 EPs before we return to reviewing for the rest of the month and January has been really busy with 2026 releases and a few later 2025 ones that we hadn't had time for.
We are absolutely chuffed that there is still such an interest in new music. So thank you to all who listen, read and submit. The labels, The PR and the artists for making this such a happy place for us to curate.
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