I don't know if I mentioned this plan publicly before... Saturday morning I sent off emails to 159 labels saying that LotFP was accepting promo submissions once again.
Things are happening in the heavy metal world at a rapid pace and I and LotFP have already been pretty far out of the loop for almost two years. We're going to get left behind if we don't keep up with what's happening.
Here's how to read the content on the website:
Reviews are going to arrive at the same slow pace as always. Reviewing on a schedule and as an obligation is the biggest soul-killing piece of shit job and I expect nobody to do it. If I, or Andreas, or Dave, or some new contributor (no new applications yet...) feel like writing a review, it will go up. But LotFP won't be the place for up to date record reviews.
Editorials will go up when somebody gets a bug up their ass to write something, but they will be in-depth, probably highly arguable, but worth reading. No 1000 word "thoughts of the day" editorials.
The lure for labels to send their promos... every single release we are sent will get an email interview in return. This means that when you see an interview posted, it does not necessarily mean that LotFP is interested in the band. It does mean we're using standardized interviews. Are they worth reading? Up to you, but we are striving to make the questions interesting and subversive. We don't expect everyone to answer them. But we hope the nature of the questions will make for worthy reading whether you give a shit about the band or not.
Unsigned bands get the exact same treatment as signed bands get. Some garage band from Idaho will get the same interview that Major Label Metalcore gets. We just don't expect the larger bands to bother to take the time, so the smaller bands get the lion's share of the exposure. Fine by us.
Feature interviews will still be custom tailored to the band. "Introducing", "Checking Up", and "One Hundred Questions" will be standardized formats. As answers come in, when there are questions that seem to be getting poo-poo'd or the same answers come up all the time, they will be changed. We figure the interviews will be altered every month or two.
Why do this? The more new stuff that is on this website, the more hits it will generate. The more people that stumble upon us, the number of people that wonder what that Scum or Impure Metal is about, and read them. The more people that come our way, the better the chance somebody wants to join the team. And then I'll have the LotFP #66 information back up this week, and the more people coming our way, the more people see what we're doing for that and maybe we can get the damn thing out in a timely manner.
And yeah, we're accepting ads for the website. Figure if we're offering a free publicity opportunity on the website, we can also offer a not-free opportunity. No advertising will be accepted for the printed magazine.
We have a plan. We need people coming here to see what it is we're doing. So far in 2006 we have an average of 2000 unique visitors to the site, mainly driven by Impure Metal. It is my goal to have new content often enough to drive that up to 5000 a month by the end of this year.
How's that sound?
Things are happening in the heavy metal world at a rapid pace and I and LotFP have already been pretty far out of the loop for almost two years. We're going to get left behind if we don't keep up with what's happening.
Here's how to read the content on the website:
Reviews are going to arrive at the same slow pace as always. Reviewing on a schedule and as an obligation is the biggest soul-killing piece of shit job and I expect nobody to do it. If I, or Andreas, or Dave, or some new contributor (no new applications yet...) feel like writing a review, it will go up. But LotFP won't be the place for up to date record reviews.
Editorials will go up when somebody gets a bug up their ass to write something, but they will be in-depth, probably highly arguable, but worth reading. No 1000 word "thoughts of the day" editorials.
The lure for labels to send their promos... every single release we are sent will get an email interview in return. This means that when you see an interview posted, it does not necessarily mean that LotFP is interested in the band. It does mean we're using standardized interviews. Are they worth reading? Up to you, but we are striving to make the questions interesting and subversive. We don't expect everyone to answer them. But we hope the nature of the questions will make for worthy reading whether you give a shit about the band or not.
Unsigned bands get the exact same treatment as signed bands get. Some garage band from Idaho will get the same interview that Major Label Metalcore gets. We just don't expect the larger bands to bother to take the time, so the smaller bands get the lion's share of the exposure. Fine by us.
Feature interviews will still be custom tailored to the band. "Introducing", "Checking Up", and "One Hundred Questions" will be standardized formats. As answers come in, when there are questions that seem to be getting poo-poo'd or the same answers come up all the time, they will be changed. We figure the interviews will be altered every month or two.
Why do this? The more new stuff that is on this website, the more hits it will generate. The more people that stumble upon us, the number of people that wonder what that Scum or Impure Metal is about, and read them. The more people that come our way, the better the chance somebody wants to join the team. And then I'll have the LotFP #66 information back up this week, and the more people coming our way, the more people see what we're doing for that and maybe we can get the damn thing out in a timely manner.
And yeah, we're accepting ads for the website. Figure if we're offering a free publicity opportunity on the website, we can also offer a not-free opportunity. No advertising will be accepted for the printed magazine.
We have a plan. We need people coming here to see what it is we're doing. So far in 2006 we have an average of 2000 unique visitors to the site, mainly driven by Impure Metal. It is my goal to have new content often enough to drive that up to 5000 a month by the end of this year.
How's that sound?
