Today is a very special day for the website as another little milestone has been hit. This post here will be the 500th article published on ‘The Sound Sniffer’. I never thought I’d get to this point in a million years but it has been a great journey thus far. I’ve met some lovely and hellishly talented people along the way too. This is only the starting out period for the blog, there is a long road to go yet before it is a semblance of what it could be. I will not stop until this thing is influential and solid.
The idea for this site was born back in 2016, when I posted like five dreadful reviews of electronic tracks before putting the project on the shelf. While I was living in White City, running a small hostel in 2018, I found myself sitting at a computer desk seven days a week and Sniffer was reborn. Since then, It has been full steam ahead and I’ve received around ten thousand submissions across all platforms to date.
When I was a kid, music blogs were a big deal for me. I used to religiously watch anything that came out of ‘Le Blogothéque‘ and download the tracks I found on BIRP FM on Limewire/Bearshare (remember them), back in the day. Blogs were a real solid way of finding things – I found music that simply could not be found on terrestrial radio or the music channels. The role of the music blog has changed a lot in recent times. It seems nowadays, a music blog’s sole purpose is the write bio’s and press releases for artists and ease the workload PR companies get paid mega to do, for free. Spotify and those other mega streaming platforms have the music finding ”experience” covered. The traditional way of blogging is dead, people just aren’t interested in discovering other people’s music. Why the hell would they when everyone has their own Release Radar curated for them by a robot? I’d like to hope that this trend will change and people will revert back to trusted choices and well thought out words again.
It’s crucial to adapt to the changing times and I am trying to find niche avenues for the site. It has been amazing doing the little showcases in London and I’m really looking forward to more of them when Coronavirus is gone. Maybe I’ll just become a huge Tik-Tok celebrity? It might be easier? Nah, The Sound Sniffer is a passion, it’s the thing that wakes me up in the morning and gives each day a purpose – for this alone, it’s worth is priceless. There are loads of really cool things lying ahead and I hope some of you get involved and live this project with me along the way. If you like reading Interviews, rambling words and listening to music the robots and algorithm’s cannot find – you are in the right place.
I wanted to post a tune to accompany this cool milestone – I had a think last night and conferred with a few of my closest kin. I decided that the most fitting and suitable tune today would be a throwback live video of Beirut bashing out ‘Nantes’ on a collection of bins and street corners back in 2008. This was right in the height of the blog world, in a time before Spotify (there was a world before then). La Blogothéque were the YouTube king’s and had the best improvised street shows. A lot of my favourite artists (Bon Iver, Phoenix, Local Natives, Grizzly Bear, Lykee Li, Jose Gonzalez, Yeasayer, Cold War Kids, Vampire Weekend), had performances there. I still listen to those artists to this day. THAT was influence – if this site becomes half as influential, job done! 😉
Best,
Kevin
About ‘The Sound Sniffer’
The Sound Sniffer is a music blog which is still only a baby – Founded and run by Kevin Coakley in early 2019. He is a music writer and ghostwriter. ‘The Sound Sniffer’ also runs gigs and showcases in London since Oct 2019. The showcases are picked from artists we find in our submissions inbox.
Check out my Interviews HERE
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