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Both during the quarantine and especially this past couple of weeks, I have had time to reflect on the State of E2TG. This week marks the 9th Anniversary of E2TG. During those nine years, many solo music blogs have come and gone or gone dormant, and I totally understand why.
I have always said E2TG has kept going out of stubbornness and my intention to keep going as long as it made sense to do so. During 2019, I reached a point where I knew I had to make some changes to how I operated E2TG, and I put that new plan into place in January (sort of). Not everything has gone according to plan. It has been an eventual and difficult five months so far - with no sign of abatement.
The Featured Friday is going well, and I appreciated all the support. The shuffle was, as planned, relegated to a feature not intended to highlight new releases (often). This was a big change from prior years, and it was basically necessary - the daily posting was taking too long and my time was running way too short.
The limitations of the Spotify Playlist is that I can't really featured music that hasn't been released yet, and some artists are choosing not to use Spotify (which I again totally get).
Another new feature was the new release calendar. I am only moderately happy with it. It is relatively easy to maintain (when I have time), but many times, I don't get things added like I would like - either because I don't know about it or don't remember when I do update it.
I had hoped to use that as a springboard to post some short reviews and possibly provide links to pre-orders etc. That has not happened as I would have liked. Basically, I spend the time I have adding music to the calendar, and then run out of time or energy when it comes to the short reviews.
I know that all of this has meant that some people may feel like E2TG is providing the coverage it once did - while some people now get coverage that wouldn't have before. At this point, it is what it is. As with many people, some days, it is all I have to just get out of bed and put one foot in front of the others. In addition, I am fortunate enough to still have my day job and be working from home - so I don't have the huge glut of free time that some people have experienced. Not a complaint at all, just an observation.
So part of my self-assessment is to decide what E2TG is and what it isn't, and then to decide if it still makes sense to keep going. E2TG is not an unpaid publicist - even for artists and people I love. (Nor a paid one either). Some times, my methods and approaching will not align with the marketing strategy of a particular artist or publicist - it just won't. I can only offer what I have to offer - which is me telling my readers what music is on my mind,
If ever comes a time when I stop having fun and/or no one is reading, I probably will stop, but that day is not today.
Onward!
Featured Friday Playlist
