It’s Zeitgeist time! We’re back with our annual collection of the year’s best music. Alongside the most-posted artists and videos of the year are two new features:
First is a reflection from some of the people who defined the year in emerging music. We asked artists featured in our Stack newsletter for their favorite music discoveries of 2017. Their answers—songs, videos, mixes, books, experiences—are collected in the Stacks section.
The next feature is exclusively for current Hype Machine supporters: a playlist containing the most popular tracks of the year according to data from the supporter community.
Three months into our funding campaign, we have been encouraged by the outpouring of support. A lot of work is still ahead: while we’re now over 3,000 supporters strong, your contributions remain key for us to invest in new features and improvements to our mobile apps.
We noticed that some of our supporters occasionally had questions before signing up. I’ve gathered a few that have come up frequently, hopefully these can clarify a few details.
Q: What happened? Why are you running this campaign?
A: Over the years, we had primarily been funded by banner ads. Today, ad spending has mostly shifted to a handful of larger sites/social networks. But that doesn’t mean Hype Machine should stop working—there’s still more new music to find!
Q: I already bought your app. Why should I pay again?
A: Thanks for buying the app! These one-time payments helped its development at the time, but they can’t support our company in the long term.
Q: Weren’t you bought by SoundCloud?
A: No, we have no financial relationship with SoundCloud. They do host a lot of the music that people are writing about, though, and we have supported their embeddable players since 2008.
Q: Can you bring back offline mode? What about Sonos integration?
A: We’ve had to remove offline listening from our iPhone app, and make changes to Sonos functionality at SoundCloud’s request. One way to continue listening offline is to sync your favorites with a premium SoundCloud or Spotify account and listen to the playlist in those apps. The playlist will be automatically updated as you find new tracks on Hype Machine, and you can play it on Sonos as well. Link your accounts here.
Q: Where will the money go?
A: All of the subscription revenue goes to pay for servers (20%), salaries and health care for our team (80%). As more supporters join, we’ll be able to invest in improving our mobile apps and building new features.
Q: What do I get as a supporter?
A: No ads, access to a supporter-only group playlist, stickers at the $6+ level, and Hype Machine will keep running and making new stuff.
Hype Machine turned 12 last week! That’s a long time for any service, especially an independent one. How long have you been listening with us?
To celebrate, we’ve redesigned the site for better navigation and playback, and added a few new features.
We’ve also introduced a way to fund our work directly. With your support, we can continue to build new pathways for music discovery for many more years to come. Join us here.
Update May 20, 2017 We’ve reached our first goal of 1,000 supporters, our first step towards sustainability. Thank you! A lot of work is ahead, however – to continue developing the service we need at least 3,000 monthly supporters. Join us.
It’s here! Our 10th annual roundup of the year’s best music, with the most-discussed artists and videos of 2016, and every longread we’ve Stacked each week. To start, we’ve compiled a few of the stories we’ve followed in Stack throughout the year, with artists, labels, and genres that have gained prominence in 2016.
For the first time since it’s release in 2011, Hype Machine for iOS is available for free in the App Store!
Here’s what’s new in this release:
We’ve added an easier way to read blog posts when playing a track: just swipe up on the artwork to see the list.
There are a few other changes: we’ve removed the offline mode to comply with SoundCloud’s Terms of Service. This update also makes it easier to jump to your synced favorites in the SoundCloud app—tap the button on your profile screen.
Hype Machine indexes hundreds of music sites and collects their latest posts for easy streaming and discovery. We're here to help you find the best new music first.
It’s Zeitgeist time! We’re back with our annual collection of the year’s best music. Alongside the most-posted artists and videos of the year are two new features:
