Jason Tate's Blog Entry

the answer is heisel.

tinker tailor solider punk

Shots fired

Is that movie worth watching?

I just come here and that's it. I have no need for another music site, especially one that focuses on this scene. The biggest point you brought up is the community here. Every other site that I've seen is usually filled with biased douche bags (we have a few here too), but you'll never be able to communicate and discuss like you can on AP.net. We connect here. We're a family.

Can't wait to read this post on Alt Press in an hour.

Hahahaha

Our community is probably my favorite aspect of the site.

Exactly.

But in defense of the other sites for some news, some of it is all gotten from a band site so it's not unreasonable that other sites report just as this site does.
Still
AP.netpride

Eh. It's pretty slow. Good movie, well made, not very engrossing.

psyched to hear what ideas you have in regards to unique content, so tired of every website regurgitating the same press releases

have you thought about doing original video stuff in the vein of pitchfork.tv or VBS?

Yep! Got a lot of video stuff coming up.

I also want to bring up the point that band members communicate here without the need for a press statement, which is the only way a musician can get a message through AltPress. That's so huge. I'm on Punknews a lot, where there is discussion (not as much, and WAY more idiots), but I've only seen a band member engage commenters once. That direct voice in news stories is in my eyes, the greatest advantage of getting your news here.

Jason,
I follow 4 of the "alternative" news sites on my Google Reader. More often than not, PropertyOfZack and Alter The Press are first to post news, then you guys. PunkNews usually follows along a day or so later, as it seems they've decided to not even bother entering the rat race. Not to burst your bubble or anything. Sometimes you're first. Regardless, all of the sites then decide that since one of you posted it, you all have to.

I completely agree with everything that you're saying regarding developing some sort of unity within the news scene. I've had this conversation with Zack on more than a few occasions, but I just wish that sites would focus more (even more than they do now) on just providing us with quality content (interviews, exclusives, chats, videos, etc.). Sites like AbsolutePunk and PropertyOfZack do a really nice job of that, but it's sad to know that the posts that get the most traffic (and therefore generate the most advertising dollars, making it possible to do your job) are the pieces about whether Jonny Craig is doing drugs (duh), quitting music, un-quitting music, etc. It's like us at Fusion Shows doing a crappy screamo show and doing 400 people with it so that I can book great bands like Company Of Thieves or The Swellers or Citizen or River City Extension and pray to God that 100 people come. Bullshit pays the bills for non-bullshit, and that's the way it is in this business.

News sites are in a tough situation, because honestly, we don't need "news" anymore. Twitter and Facebook tell us everything we need to know before you guys could possibly draft up a 3-sentence "news article", check it for spelling, fact-check it, and post it.

I follow AP and PofZ for the content. Maybe I'm in the minority. Focus on giving me something I care about, and I'll spend more time on the site. Could give two shits about 3/4 of the stuff posted, not because I don't care for the bands, but because most of the posts have no substance.

I don't have an answer to the problem. If you don't post an article saying what the name of Gaslight Anthem's new record is, you'll look like you're not in the know, not connected, losing your touch. But who gives a shit about the title of a record, especially a title "exclusively" revealed by another online site. Especially when Alter The Press posted it at 7:34, and then you guys followed at 7:55.

It's a catch 22, and one that I'm definitely relieved that I don't really have to be a part of!

I cache and delay our RSS feed longer than most, on purpose, so that it updates Twitter (and other social networks) on a delay in-case I need to edit an article after it's first posted. So, using Google Reader timestamps isn't really the best way to determine. However, we are not -- repeat - NOT - always first on every story. I have never, ever claimed we are. And I never will - that would be ridiculous. This is not a blog post about how awesome we are for being "first" to a story. It's how irrelevant it is.

Traffic on individual posts very, very rarely translates into advertising dollars. And I have never made a single post on the website with anything like that in mind ...

The Gaslight Anthem fans care about the title of the record. If that's not the kind of information you're looking for ... dunno what to tell you, it's the kind of information - I - as a fan - love to know. However, for the record: Alter the Press still hasn't posted that news BTW. Their last post on TGA was at 4:33 (PST) about the shows we posted at 3:56 (PST). And it's not like it matters to me at all (especially this kind of thing) ... I find it funny. Not "I'm angry about it blah blah" -- because I get how this all works. When I say it's funny to me -- I actually mean funny.

When I miss something by A MONTH - finally do my job right and post it ... and then all of a sudden it's everywhere. To me it shows how everyone is watching everyone. We can all do better ... hopefully I can help facilitate that. But I still chuckle at the comedy.

Well, I learned something today (regarding RSS delays, timestamps, etc.).

Either way, it's just a weird situation to be in, because I do see too much copying, too much racing to post "news" that's not really news, and too much backtracking, deleting of posts, band members and agents and managers pissed because news leaked, half the time incomplete or wrong altogether.

It's not an AbsolutePunk problem, but a human + internet problem.

Either way, I appreciate what you guys do. I've found a lot of my favorite bands through this site, from you guys hammering them into our heads. I know a lot of people would say the same.