Project for an ILM blog/site/publication

ILXiversity

"Excelsioring 101"

We should call this publication "OTM"

If we can somehow make travelling to World FAP a deductible business expense, so many things would fall into place.

but i think itd be best if it allowed you to create a format that wasnt just the same as everything else everywhere

― lag∞n, Saturday, September 15, 2012 10:41 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is key -- pretty sick of sites that use the same basic format at PF and expect similar results. i have some ideas about novel formats but this probably isn't the right time to start pitching those.

branding or closely associating this too much with ILM in a 'you should read this if you're already on the board' way is not a great idea imo. i don't think there's any sustainable way for something like this to happen w/o an individual or small group taking the ball and running with it and deciding from there how much to involve the board and the posters.

Just throwing this out there: I started publishing a semi-quarterly-ish magazine called Burning Ambulance about two years ago. I recently retired the print edition after 5 issues 'cause sales were low, people were slow to turn in promised articles, I got a full-time job, etc., etc. But the website continues to exist, and is doing OK traffic-wise, this past week anyway ('cause I published a big ol' week-long list). If a bunch of you wanted to start writing for the magazine, I would re-activate it. No flat fees for articles, but everyone who contributes to a given issue gets a percentage of the sales from that issue. (I'm also gonna put the issues up on Amazon, for Kindle.)

Email me at burningambulance at gmail dot com if you're interested.

I agree with Al

Phil might be onto something, but...

We may want to aim for a site that isn't just music centric but that covers all sorts of subjects. Because music is awesome but there's way more to talk about

it would be a hilarious to have a publication that covered the same subjects in the same quantities as ILE but let the other board worry about that imo, 'music and more' attempts to rope in other subjects and be a lifestyle brand tend to kinda suck

when you go "and more" you risk having no clear direction whatsoever, it can become kind of terrifying.

i don't think anything will stop people using ilm to discuss music but i do agree there might be some good ways we could do things that wouldn't be just straight reviews or whatever.

call it 'freaky trigger'

― balls, Saturday, September 15, 2012 5:55 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

A couple of people have got at the kernels of what I was trying to say.

1) Cis and Lex got it - that the strength of ILM is that it is not a blog or one person's thinkpiece or a newspaper article, it is a conversation. It is a conversation that often has myriad different viewpoints, and that's a feature, not a bug - but it is very hard (and usually comes off forced) if you try to get that kind of dialogue and multilogue in a magazine format.

2) WmC picked up the other half of it - which is that once Nabisco got hired to do his OTM schtick for big newspapers, we no longer get his OTM-ness anywhere near as much because he is saving the OTM for the paying gig. Which is fine, and I'm glad that he is making actual M off being OTM. But firstly, the number of people who are OTM often enough to justify that by themselves (i.e. not in conversation, ILX's biggest strength) are few. But more importantly, like WmC said, if *everyone* saves their good stuff for paying gigs, ILM would lose its best posts, which I don't want to happen.

Well I'm not a writer so you can still get all my crap for free on ILM!

ILM as it is is great, it's a truism to point out it works the way it does because it's a conversation. Which is why, once again, nobody, not one person, has suggested transforming ILM into a music website, or doing anything to ILM as it currently is whatsoever.

LG, you're kinda assiduously avoiding WCC's point, which (I think) is that any paying site which draws from ILM's talent pool would necessarily change ILM, with or without a stated aim of "transformation."

ILM already has a place where people write for free and it's called ILM

otm

short of reprogramming the message board code so it functions differently, i seriously doubt any of the things being bandied about in this thread would change ilx in any substantial way, or at least not any more than it would change by itself.

for the record, i'm 100% in agreement with WCC.

for non-discussion pieces, there are plenty of other places out there (tQ being the main hangout), but there is only one ilm.

i dont think discussion is necessarily the only alternative to blog posts nor is it imho as currently shoehorned into various outlets v compelling

I think I dig lagoon's 'just highlight best ilx stuff'

beyond that it's really really easy to start a site/blog/whatever these days, it's just that nobody cares

I quite like the Economist's hosted debates, something like that might be interesting.

Although the good thing about our format here is that the thread setup is so simple it can be almost anything you like - make the first post yr blog and everything else comments, for instance.

I know they're closely connected, but I think trying to define the form before the content might be a mistake here. Work out what this thing is going to say and we can build something to house it (or say "Freaky Trigger, have you heard of it?").

Right now this feels a little bit like a fight about "should our first album be on vinyl or CD?" before working out who is in the band.

yeah that's the thing, the only reason i think it's worth talking about how to do it creatively and resourcefully is because it'd be so easy to just rush into something with nothing but enthusiasm and for it to just land with a thud. (xpost)

Right now this feels a little bit like a fight about "should our first album be on vinyl or CD?" before working out who is in the band.

Ah that's simple:

Ned Raggett Presents: Music Writers of the Future.

so easy to just rush into something with nothing but enthusiasm and for it to just land with a thud.

my life.

i dream of bowel movements like that

So, what exactly is it supposed to be?

best new albums and best new tracks + thesinglesjukebox

that could be interesting I think. I'm imagining thesinglesjukebox method of working (several ilxors reviewing the same thing) but including albums. It's pretty much the thread format but in a post form.

If you are in need of a corny, indie blogger with bad english I'm in.

The way I think that could work best behind scenes is, everyone involved brings to the table a song and an album that they love every month and a minimum of 5 ilxors review them. If there's at least 12 ilxors involved in the blog that would give us 24 new entries every month at least.

balls otm

Also I think this method of blogging brings something different to what ILM is. The everything comes, daily comments live inside ILM and the blog is only for giving a ranking and statement about the music which is something we don't really have in here.

I've wanted to organize a Singles Jukebox-like thing with some people for a LONG time, but the idea just kind of crumbles whenever I get a few people together to attempt it. :(

And who is going to be the editor of this thing? And who gets to decide who is involved and who is not? And what is the point of taking something which is egalitarian and open to all and making it the kind of selective organisation that would be needed to make something like that work? It's a horrible idea, and it goes against everything that I actually like about ILM.

one of my ideas involved something like Moka's -- namely having several perspectives on an album instead of one monolithic 'official review' -- but "best new albums and best new tracks" is exactly the kind of unimaginative let's be pitchfork without being pitchfork bullshit i was talking about upthread.

and it's kinda sad to me how many people consider opinions about new music to be the whole of music writing

Ideally I think we should have at least 3 editors in case the others are busy. I don't think it would be that difficult to coordinate. It would only take some minutes of your day to listen to a song and post your comments and ranking about them. I'd say everyone who is interested is in but we don't need to wait for everyone to review a song, as I've said before if we get a minimum of 5 ilxors per review before a specific date of delivery it's a go. It only takes a little compromise of a small percentage of anyone involved.

It takes four steps as I see it:

* Maybe a google timesheet were everyone involved posts their monthly suggestions. They will be reviewed in a first come, first served way.
* Before each Sunday the ilxors involved send as many reviews from the top to the bottom as they can.
* The timesheet gets updated with the names of the ilxors who have reviewed the songs so far.
* When the minimum quota of 5 reviews per album / song gets filled the editors publish the songs.

The best new music / best new albums thing was a way of picturing, I'd actually find it more exciting if we nominated from any genre and year we want. Only restriction would be one album / one song per month. (Or maybe two of each if there isn't really that many people involved)

Actually nominating and reviewing from any year that you want is an awesome idea, it would bring a different angle that not many zines and review blogs want to explore.

and it's kinda sad to me how many people consider opinions about new music to be the whole of music writing

otm x 100. There's so much great stuff that has had little if any good critical/historical/whatever examination -- or hasn't had any for years or decades. One thing I love about ILM is that it ranges back and forth and laterally. The major bummer about the zillion music sites/blogs/zines out there, apart from their dodgy quality, is how limited their scope is.

just a bit of fun let's be cool

guys, podcasts are where it's at now. hire someone with a stentorian voice to read ilx threads aloud, slap on some commercials for audible.com, boom done.

Ned.

I'd kickstart a decent sum to any pub that I'd want to read, since as of yesterday apparently (almost) none exist. Especially one focusing on conversational crit rather than features journalism as such. But I'm not sure if there's a workable model. There's also a bunch of great stuff on tumblers/lj/etc. but the conversations are too insular (just like much of ILM in the past however many years) for me to follow since I pay less attention than in the old days. I'd be down for a curatorial low-volume blog, longreads-style, maybe, including links to xgau and eddy in their current gigs, etc.

four reviews a day is waaay too much btw. its a firehose. i'd want maybe one or two things to skim a day, at the most.

even like weekly updates w/ 6 articles.

the endless stream of posts on the voice blog under maura even was too much for me.

hire someone with a stentorian voice to read ilx threads aloud, slap on some commercials for audible.com, boom done.

― i've hidden a white teen on Crimedoer Mountain (reddening), Saturday, September 15, 2012 2:34 PM (13 minutes ago)

Ned.

― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, September 15, 2012 2:35 PM (12 minutes ago)

A vision.

Even though I've heard Ned's voice, I still hear his posts in my head in the voice of Arnold Stang. Sorry, man.

get david attenborough to narrate it. "will a WmC get enough zings to survive the cold sandbox winter ahead? in his weakened state he could make a tasty treat for a wild Johnny Fever, tipsy mothra, or crut." etc