If you happen to’re an indie rock fan of a sure age, the title Stereogum will most likely conjure robust emotions. The location was launched “January 1st, 2002, on a whim,” founder Scott Lapatine informed The Verge. Initially, this early staple of the music weblog period was targeted nearly fully on music discovery and posting MP3s. “It was the early days of like Home windows Media Participant and Actual Participant,” Scott remembers. Right now, the location is concentrated on music journalism and has simply relaunched to maintain up with a media panorama being overrun by AI.
Lapatine has been with Stereogum from the start, and watched as each the music and media world quickly modified round him. Although he offered the location in 2006 and watched it change palms a number of instances within the ensuing years, he purchased it again from the earlier proprietor in 2020, making it arguably the most well-liked bastion of unbiased music journalism on the web.
After nearly 24 years, the location is making among the most important modifications because it stopped internet hosting MP3s. A few of these modifications, like the brand new backend, are largely invisible to readers, however Lapatine says the brand new website hundreds sooner and has fewer bugs. The location has undergone a facelift, full with a darkish mode, and is shifting its focus in the direction of subscriptions.
Clearly, Lapatine says, “the largest change is streaming.” Stereogum predates Spotify by a number of years, so the novelty of posting a tune, maybe one you couldn’t hear wherever else, was sufficient to assist it construct a robust following. “Within the early days, it was just like the rule was no interviews and no no matter,” now he says, “I’ve like a staff {of professional} music writers, so there’s like much more context and perception.”
What prompted the most recent revamp of the location, nonetheless, wasn’t streaming music platforms, it was largely pushed by AI. “Google’s pivot to AI search has minimize our advert income by 70 %. Previous to that, Fb and X’s deprioritization of hyperlinks damage too, however I can’t downplay the brutal affect of AI Overview,” Lapatine stated in a publish saying the location’s relaunch. Even past overviews, although, Lapatine sees AI diminishing these platforms’ usefulness. Each time he logs into Fb, he says he’s bombarded with movies, “like Ozzie comes again from the useless and hugs somewhat lady. It’s laborious to imagine that these platforms are letting themselves be become these like slop warehouses.”
He was additionally clear in our interview that whereas he’s certain AI has its place, that place will not be at Stereogum. “I’ve by no means used it for something artistic and none of our writers use it by way of like information gathering or writing,” he stated noting, “it definitely sucks to be competing with articles which might be AI generated… nevertheless it’s a actuality.”
Like many different shops, Stereogum is shifting in the direction of a subscription-focused mannequin. (The Verge launched its personal subscription program in December of 2024.) As promoting revenues have dried up and AI overviews have crushed search visitors, many websites have appeared to their devoted fanbase to assist preserve them afloat. Lapatine says there was some restricted backlash, however “hopefully our viewers understands that, to get what they really feel is exclusive from Stereogum, you already know, they should assist us.”
He notes that, whereas individuals have gotten used to getting all the pieces on-line free of charge over the past 25 years, individuals used to pay for music magazines. Within the Nineties, you needed to go to a retailer and pay for a replica of CMJ New Music Month-to-month. Stereogum will nonetheless provide some content material free of charge however, “there’s some proportion of readers we have to pay to exist. We have to pay our writers,” Lapatine says.
He is aware of there are loads of locations vying in your subscription greenback nowadays. Web sites, podcasts, Substacks are all shifting to a paid subscription mannequin. “We expect there’s like a future for music writing completed by people,” Lapatine says, “and to be clear, like there’s loads of locations that do that. There are like superior newsletters and different unbiased websites.” However he factors out that loads of main music publications are owned by large conglomerates. And he doesn’t imagine that these shops are at all times above board. “I believe lots of people don’t notice how a lot of the music journalism that they see nowadays is both secretly paid for or will not be completed with integrity.”
Lapatine says his objective has at all times been to function with transparency. He desires Stereogum to really feel like speaking to a good friend who goes to exhibits and tells you about cool stuff on Bandcamp. In the end, he desires to construct a reference to readers, assist them discover good music, and do it with character. That human ingredient is vital as a result of, he says, “I’ve by no means found anybody from the algorithm.”
