After much thought and consideration I have decided to change a few things up on the blog side of things here on The Alternative Nation. The blog will continue but I have decided that from this moment on I will no longer write album or EP reviews and I’m going to slim line new music post on both the audio and video sides.

There are two simple reasons why I have decided to make these changes – 1. Time or lack thereof (this is a one man operation after all) and 2. I never wanted to be a journalist/writer.

Growing up I was always fascinated by radio and always dreamed of being a radio DJ or presenter as they are mostly known. I wanted to spin my favourite songs to the masses and help them get through their day or night, this is why I started the podcast, after years of being told I couldn’t do radio or people in positions to help me failing to do so, podcasting was the perfect solution as it was a radio show on my own terms and could be listened to whenever the listener was free to do so. Being a music journalist was never my thing, I don’t really know how to find the words to pad out a review or indeed come up with multiple ways of saying something is good, bad or otherwise, it just simply does not appeal to me.

For those of you that are unaware, since August of last year I have been hosting a bi-weekly radio show on Radio Kaos Caribou out of France, the show features new music, classic tracks and some forgotten gems. Putting this two hours of music together takes up a lot of my time and when you mix in I also have to find an hour of music every month for the podcast and thats not including the time I need to put that show together, means the time I need to sit and write up reviews and try and figure out what I want to say about the new music that has been sent to me is all but gone and then there is the replying to all those emails to let them know if I’m going to support the track or not.

So going forward I am dropping album/EP reviews as this will save me lots of time and is something I rare do anyway, now thats not to say that I won’t write them from time to time but this is strictly based on my thoughts of the work put forward, but for the most part the albums/ep’s I’m enjoying will simply be posted to The Alternative Nation IG account. 

Posts for new music in both audio and video form will still be posted and hopefully with the changes being made will happen more frequently than it is right now. The new posting format for these posts will follow the layout format of the reviews to some degree, but instead of posting the track listing like in those reviews I will be posting up all the information you need to support the artist. This will include links to buy and stream, their online platforms along with label information or lack of if they are operating on a DIY level, album title and release date. I will also include a little blurb about the track which will be no more than a short sentence.

All I really want for you the visitor to this site is to hear and discover the new music and new artists. I want to be more of a link for the artist to an audience that may otherwise not know they are out there making some great music and with blog visitors from all over the world, including countries even I’m shocked to see stopping by, it’s a good opportunity for the artists to spread their wings and travel the world doing what they love to do, if they start seeing their own number rise in these areas. 

I’m also trying to figure out some new audio ideas be it playlists on Soundcloud or Spotify (even though I don’t really like using Spotify as not everyone can listen) to making mixtapes for Mixcloud. I’m also deciding what to do with my youtube channel including removing it… did you even know The Alternative Nation has a YouTube channel? I’m more than happy to upload music videos and audio tracks to the channel as long as I have permission from the artists and their managers/labels.

I am also looking to change up the menu to reflect some of these changes and to help you get to the music that you love quicker, this also means some new tags are going to be put in place.

I also know how important social media is in this modern age and I’m going to try and be better across all my platforms also. This includes using Instagram stories and maybe even venturing into the IGTV world, I’d also like to interact more with artists and visitors to the site more on Twitter and Facebook. I have always tried to start things with social media but normally end up forgetting to post or have no time to keep things going so I’m really hoping that these changes will free me up to do some more things and even run some social media only features.

These changes will be implemented over the coming weeks and this will hopefully allow me to share more music with you and give you a one stop shop for all your new music needs.

Thanks for reading and be sure to comment below or across one of the social media accounts with any ideas you may have or would like to see.