Is There Anyone Out There?

Hello!

I've really enjoyed publishing this blog for the last seven years and I want to keep going. However, the time has come for me to reassess if it still has a place on the web. Both comments and readership have declined significantly over the last few months so I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just writing for myself.

Have the quality of my posts deteriorated or is it just that blogs are too old school and are no longer relevant because everyone now spends most of their cyber-time on Facebook and Twitter?

I really enjoy mixing the classic rock with the current stuff. Since the former still seems to draw a bigger audience than do posts about new artists I'm going to assume I have an older readership. On the other hand, Forgotten Music Thursdays, this blog's most popular feature, has also attracted a smaller audience recently.

So, I just want to know. Do you have any suggestions to improve Bloggerhythms and is there still anyone out there?

Comments

  1. Sean4:15 PM, February 20, 2012

    I don't think that you need to change your format, writing style or subject matter. Your posts are very well-written and brim with insight. This is only an opinion, though I feel that many people lack the attention span required to delve into certain subjects. Be it music, art, history (fill in the blanks), it is a sense of context that is slowly disappearing. The reason? The very technology that most folks utilize to either gather or add information to the virtual superhighway. In example, when I was younger and getting into Neil Young, I would borrow an album or two. From these discs, I knew when they were recorded, could pinpoint where the artist was in his development chronologically and I had a brace of tracks that were part of a collection. The person who loaned them to me might also fill in some blanks with some additional info about these recordings. These days,a kid may download a song or two by Neil Young. The song could date from 1992, 1969 or 2004. The kid will have to go hunting if they want to fill in the rest of the story. In short, they are picking info out of the air, but there is little connection to where it came from or the context in which the songs were created. To make matters worse, a lot of people don't want to have to do the research or piece together an artist's discography. They just want the information in quick soundbites. The good news is that there are still a lot of people out there who like to connect the dots and are willing to read for information. Keep writing and posting with depth as there are lots who appreciate the effort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erik9:10 AM, February 21, 2012

      Exactly, I couldn't have written it any more to the point. I'm just in my first year of music blogging myself and blogs like these helped me convince myself that there are still people out there who 'like to connect the dots'. Keep up the writing!

      Delete
  2. drewzepmeister6:37 PM, February 20, 2012

    Ditto to what Sean said....Blogging is the reason I'm rarely on Facebook. I enjoy reading record reviews, getting different perceptions and thoughts from the writers, even finding info along way. Hell, if wasn't for Sean's brilliant review on Van Halen's latest album, I might never know how fabulous the record was.

    I don't own an I-pod nor do I Tweet. Call me old fashioned, I still buy vinyl and cassettes at rummage sales and thrift shops (I just got my hands on a vinyl version of Journey Through the Past by Neil Young-it's out of print) There is nothing better than kicking back to a stereo and rocking out to a favorite album.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeff9:41 PM, February 20, 2012

    Seven years is an eternity in Internet years, so congratulations for that! Traffic and comments are down for most of us who write music blogs, so don't take that as a reflection on your blog. I certainly see it over at AM, Then FM. My audience skews a bit older these days. Yours apparently does, too. I would not make any suggestions because you know your blog best. Other thah ... keep on keepin' on, man!

    ReplyDelete
  4. jb10:17 AM, February 21, 2012

    I echo what Jeff says. I have used Facebook and Twitter to plug my posts in hopes of attracting a few more eyeballs from people spending more time there, but the results have been mixed.

    I do believe there's value in continuing to do what we do, because there will always be a few people searching for the context Sean discusses above. If we can provide a few worthy drops of actual knowledge amidst the firehose of information, then good for us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. music obsessive2:17 PM, February 21, 2012

    I sympathise entirely. My hits are down as well and after 5 years of blogging I am cutting back from my weekly post to fortnightly or even longer if I have nothing to say. I still want to feel enthused so am trying not to make the whole thing a chore. I don't think it's anything to do with the quality of your blog, which is high, but more to do with the fact that Blogger is getting on a bit and the initial enthusiasm has waned for both readers and writers.

    Don't stop though, where else will I come to read about music stuff old and new?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Charlie Ricci4:05 PM, February 21, 2012

    Thanks for all of the encouragement guys. I have no intention of stopping & based on all of your comments there apparently is more interest than what i visualized. So, we'll be back in 2 days with another Forgotten Music Thursday. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Something Else! (e-mail us here)9:40 PM, February 23, 2012

    A little late to the party, but I'm glad to find you are keeping it going, Charlie. You've got a quality music blog here that targets grownups and doesn't kowtow to trends. There aren't enough of those kind of music sites around, IMO.

    Victor

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hooks and Harmony11:11 PM, March 13, 2012

    We are out here and depend on you! I get a little behind in my blog reading but usually finish with a flurry. We need to get the word out that good music still exists in the cesspool of today's Top 40. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete

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