Machine Shop: Hype Machine Team Blog

2012 is almost over and I just wanted to say thanks for finding new music with us this year.

We spend all of our time building things for music seekers, and it is thrilling to see you use and respond to what we’ve made.

It’s our seventh year (an eternity on the Internet), and we did a lot of new things.

Some of them were:

• Launched a brand new version of our iPhone app. The app was rewritten & redesigned from scratch and the difference is huge. It’s a free upgrade if you already have it, of course. Read what people said about it.
• Ran a 5 day (!) party at SXSW 2012 in Austin with 60 bands curated by 9 blogs, 18,000 free tacos from Taco Bell, 1800 bottles of vodka, 1200 cases of beer and 3 massage chairs. We lived, and people had fun.
• Made it easy to navigate remixes across the site and filter them out from the Popular page and the newest posts. Or, you can listen to ONLY remixes too, of course.
• Made a beautiful summary of the best music in 2012 with our yearly Zeitgeist, and had the amazing community on Tumblr vote for their favorite albums by reblogging and liking animated GIFs.
• Threw a few great shows at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC throughout the year, and music blogger meetups in Brighton, UK during the Great Escape, and Berlin, Germany during Berlin Music Week.
• Had a huge stage at Governor’s Ball, a perfectly executed music festival at Randall’s Island in NYC. At our stage, we had Built to Spill, Fiona Apple, Modest Mouse, Major Lazer, Chromeo, Passion Pit and many more. My diet for the weekend consisted exclusively of tiny cupcakes.
• Visited the BBC to talk about the most blogged artists of the year.
• Launched a Spotify app to introduce more people to music blogs
• Experimented with a way to watch all the new videos on music blogs with HMTV. Try it!
• Premiered 48 new albums a week before their release, made 12 episodes of our Music Blog Radio Show. Listen, if you missed out!
• Protested crazy legislation that was going to limit expression on the web (SOPA)
• Moved into The Secret Clubhouse – an awesome coworking space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We finally feel at home.
• Made countless improvements to the web version of the site. Everything is clearer, easier to find and faster.

It is a pleasure to be around people (you!) who are opening their minds to new things and fighting that lazy, seductive feeling of familiarity.

While many parts of the web work diligently to bring you stuff that’s catered to your existing taste (hint: it actually limits you!), we still think life is brighter when you step outside of your group of friends, the things that are comfortable to you, and jump into something entirely new.

This is also true outside of music on the web, so don’t just stop there. Take an active approach to discovering what you enjoy in the world.

See you next year, we have quite a bit in store.

Anthony & Team Hype Machine