Music website Drowned In Sound is turning to Patreon for a sustainable income, after battling with a downturn in online advertising revenues. Having launched as a blog in 2000, DiS has now reviewed thousands of albums, and built one of the more bustling online forums for a site of its type. “Despite around half a million people visiting the site each month, we are finding it increasingly difficult to cover our running costs (it is £1500 a month just for our server bill!),
let alone pay developers to fix various niggles with the website or pay for the majority of our submissions,” admits the Patreon listing. “We are reliant on advertising to keep going. Advertising is a bit unreliable to say the least and various things – from social networks driving the prices down to a lack of budget to invest in video “content” – conspire against sites like ours.” DiS isn’t the only music site grappling with these economics. “Music website ad revenue is so bad that most of us will have to shut down,” noted fellow site Popjustice. At the time of writing, the Patreon is up to just over $320 a month in funding.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools :: We Are Giant
With “fan communities” being on every artist’s team’s mind, we’re fans of the fact that…