|
| quote: | Originally posted by Swamper
Yup.
A large part of TA's success was that in the early days (2000-2005+) you had to really be into EDM to sign up/participate in the forums. Music (dj mixes/sets) were hard to come by, IDs were difficult to get, and watching video (of events) or music videos was a chore in codecs until sites started using Flash. Yeah, for years the search terms "trance download", "trance music" and "trance music videos" brought in a ton of traffic because I was in the top 2 for those. Before I had TA I registered UnknownTracks.com because I wanted a forum just based around IDing music... but then I quickly changed my mind. I registered edmaddict.com in 2003 thinking of changing the name of the site one day because while Trance is my preference I was also always into Techno/House as well. It always bothered me that TA didn't have more of a generic name to encompass the other genres but after I got this place up and running I didn't see an easy way to switch to something else.... and besides, I figured, Trance is the entry point into EDM for most people and it seems to also be what gets peeps most passionate (and thus willing to write reviews/post pictures/etc.)
I struggled for a long time with MP3 legalities and other headaches in those first 5 years... it was difficult at first to keep the place running (I had to learn linux/php/apache/etc.) and to cover costs but once I figured out how to navigate the bullshit it was painless. Napster, Myplay.com, Audiogalaxy, FreeDiskSpace.com and the dedication of most of the moderators played a big role in keeping this place afloat. Also, the event listings have been a big thing that keeps people coming back - the Toronto Event listings started in 2004 and it took years before I added the other areas (regret that).
2006 was the peak year for TA forums - in terms of posts - it was also when I had offers coming in to buy the place -- in hindsight I should have probably sold but I couldn't predict what was coming. When facebook became popular (in 2007) that's when posts started to drop as a whole. The UK and Dutch areas of TA used to be the busiest but around this time they died out and California/New York/Toronto became the popular regional areas.
What do we have today? Well ,the (vast) majority of new generation North American EDM fans (the neon kids/"YOLO"s/Mollyheads) are too busy with Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc. to care about forums much less write a lengthy review of their night out! (I take some of the blame in this as TA doesn't have a mobile version). They also come into the scene at a great time (in terms of availability/exposure) - tons of music festivals -- easy access to artist interaction (fb/twitter) -- and tons of digital media to go with it (youtube/soundcloud/mixcloud/beatport). No longer is it a chore to seek out EDM (well, it still is for 'good' EDM) but this stuff is being pushed out and marketed all over the place.
I look at other forums that have come up over the past few years and they're all barely off the ground (unless someone knows one I haven't found yet). If I type EDM forum into google TA comes up first.
What would you like to see that isn't here? |
great post! 2006 was a pretty awesome year for TA.
Funny, calling tranceaddict "TA" just sounds better than calling edmaddict "EA". just doesn't sound right.
there are definitely pros and cons to both scenarios: forums vs facebook/twitter/etc. me personally, I would have preferred it the way it used to be where facebook was more of a college thing only and the forums were for everyone. but that's just my two cents.
|
