Hey everyone. If you’re a regular reader of ours, thanks for your continued support. If you’re a new(er) reader, welcome and we hope you like what you see around here. No matter how you found us, how often you read our content, or even if you like it or not, it’s appreciated that you even gave us a chance. Over time, we have seen the appreciation is very much mutual. We have cultivated quite a presence over the years. We have a niche carved out and it’s filled with appreciation from those looking for cool, new bands, industry figures looking for fresh artists to work with, and so much more.
Now, we feel it’s the right time to take things to the next level, and we must ask… would you like to go Steady with us?
If you’re familiar with content creator platforms like Patreon or Ko-Fi, you will recognize the structure and mission of Steady immediately. It’s a site for creators to ‘get paid for what you already do‘, which is conducive to the mission of Everything Is Noise. Let me be absolutely clear with our intent with this: we ARE NOT looking to lock any of our content, new or established, behind a paywall, even for ardent supporters. Frankly, we don’t find that sort of model to be right for us from a tenable or a philosophical standpoint. More power to those that choose to do that model. We aim to treat Steady like a tip jar from those willing to contribute. Here’s how we’d like to approach all of this, from the short term to the long term.
It’s no surprise that it costs money to run a site like this. Server hosting, costs of covering festivals, boosting posts on social media (something we do rarely, but nonetheless do) – from the base expenses to ensure our existence to the supplemental stuff that help us extend our offerings and stand out, it all costs money. A short-term, primary goal of ours with Steady is to cover those costs and any similar ones that may come up. Up to now, we’ve had to pay yearly hosting fees out of our own working class pockets, something we’re happy to do because we believe in this that much, but to have it covered in other ways would no doubt be ideal.
Long-term things we’re looking at or keeping in mind are the potential costs of hiring third parties for site design work. We are quite happy and proud with the work that Leanna White has done for us in our redesign and relaunching as Everything Is Noise in July 2018 – so much so that we don’t see us changing anything any time soon – but the future is unseen and we may decide to alter our visual aesthetic or even move to a new content management system (CMS) that allows more, better options for our site in terms of layout, bandwidth, whatever. These are large costs for large undertakings, hence why it’s longer term than others – if we were to accrue enough money from you lovely folks, it would make those projects and ideas a possibility in the future.
Finally, though no less important than other possibilities, is the prospect of us paying our writers for their work. Up to now, Everything Is Noise has had ZERO money running through it. We do not accept or ask for payment of any sort to host premieres or review artists’ work – no ‘pay-to-play’. Frankly, we think that’s wack as fuck and compromises the mission and integrity of a site like us to showcase the best, most innovative and interesting music out there. No shade to those that keep it as a side hustle, it’s just not for us.
With Steady though, we’d love the opportunity to pay our writers some sort of money for their work. We currently have 14 active writers on staff, not including us editors who regularly contribute content, and they work hard. They write for EIN out of passion and desire to share awesome music with y’all, or become more consummate writers. We are a diverse team with many personal goals and we strive to be a small step in them realizing those goals when possible. We are very upfront when hiring new writers of these key aspects. As a leader of the site who’s been around for over five years now, I’d love nothing more than to pay our people for their work. They deserve it, and I’d love to make it a reality at some point.
As of now, this is the gist of what we hope to accomplish with our Steady launch and our intentions on how to use whatever money we may get from it. Just like other creator support sites, you’re able to contribute monthly. The cheapest option (three tiers of support exist) is 7€ (~$6.79*). Yearly, you can chip in 5€ (~$4.85) a month, billed as 60€/~$58.19* at once which saves 29%* over paying monthly for 12 months with the option to cancel anytime, no obligations, no long-term commitment unless you want to. Any and all money given toward these endeavors will be beyond appreciated. Our egos are not tied to this and we have no illusions as to our importance or value – we honestly don’t know what will come of us doing this, if anything. Even a handful of contributors would blow me away and humble us greatly.
If you’re interested in contributing to us directly, you don’t even have to leave the Everything Is Noise site! Check our page dedicated to this new endeavor. You can find us on Steady itself by visiting our profile page on the site. If you have any questions about any of this, you can comment below and one of us will respond as we’re able to. We are also active with messages on Facebook and Instagram, just be patient as it may be a day or two before we get back to you.
Thank you for your support, no matter how you give it to us. We literally wouldn’t be here without y’all.
*All USD conversions current as of October 12, subject to change because money isn’t real
