Feature: Rivmixx In 2009 > <

 

As editor of this 'ere musical internet emporium I thought I'd save my own views for once and give everyone else a say. Only once mind!
Enjoy the highlights.

Happy bleedin' Christmas - Roisin Kiernan

Danny Mcmillan's Year In Music - Rivmixx's Managing Director, AKA "Daddy Rivmixx"

"WOW. Rivmixx is nearly a year old and it's a mass learning curve for all involved - there's been blood, sweat and tears.

Because of the amount of work it takes to run a music network and magazine I retired from production, engineering, presenting, writing music reviews and DJing - I waved good by to my recording studio and jumped headlong into the business side after 16 years working on my studio tan in East London. Now its all SEO, analytics, social media and spreadsheets - I must be getting old.

This year seems very disruptive in the digital space, in terms of how people engage online. The UK music industry seems to have really embraced Twitter . There's been the uprising of online streaming sites, especially Spotify and, my favourite, WE7. And the likes of Sellaband  launched new artists with financial backing from fans.

People are still asking how they can replace the revenue on physical with digital - my answer is you cannot and you never will. The old music industry cash cow is dead, you are now entering the new music industry of smaller incremental payments from multiple sources. This has been coming for a long time and a lot of people pushed against it rather than embraced it - and paid dearly.

I would say 2009 was the turning point in the music industry in terms of accepting change - it can only get better from here on out. We are slowly moving away from the recession and consumer confidence is returning, in turn this could be a better year with regards to public spending, which will have financial benefits for the music industry as a whole."

 

Caragh Logan's Year In Music - Rivmixx's "I'm Tellin' You" PR and Promotions Manager

"Since the beginning of this year the team has expanded and changed and I've proudly watched Rivmixx grow into what you see today - a host of online musical awesomeness!
 
I've found '09 a challenging year, musically. As a fan of most things 'urban', I've found the massive commercialisation of talented MC's such as Chipmunk and Dizzee Rascal hard to accept. In saying that, I have found a huge amount of guilty pleasure in N-Dubz massive chart success.
 
Album-wise, I had looked forward to Bashy's debut, which turned out to be slightly disappointing for such a talented artist. Speech Debelle's 'Speech Therapy' was a pleasant surprise and she was a pleasure to interview back in June. Earlier in the year the Mongrel album 'Better Than Heavy' - which features hugely talented MCs such as Kyza, No Lay, Skinnyman and Logic - got hugely rinsed in the office. And, more recently, I've being blaring out Alicia Keys brilliant new album 'The Element Of Freedom'.
 
Having also fallen in love with the dubstep explosion and immersing myself in a little drum'n'bass reminiscence, anything touched by Chase & Status  scores 10/10 from me right now.
 
Personal highlights of the year for me would include interviewing  true hip-hop legend Guru back in April, and shocking out to an amazing Basement Jaxx set at this year's Wireless Festival .
 
I continue to back Rivmixx Rising and upcoming grime turned UK funky producer Swindle and Rivmixx Rated  UK rapper Carl Carni, who I'm putting my money on to set the urban scene on fire next year. I'm hoping for a massive year for Professor Green and for Take That to finally propel Wiley  to the status he truly deserves. I also have my fingers crossed that the abundance of pop/grime/dance mash ups will calm down a tad and we can finally have some urban music in the charts that doesn't all sound the same."

 

Matt "Rivmixx" Parker's Year In Music - Rivmixx's "Twidley Sh*t" News Editor

"I've been pretty much been entwined with music throughout the whole year. It's been cracking. First off, Zavvi went under (where I was semi-gainfully employed), which was a shame, but that's what you get when your only distributor was part of Woolworths! In my unemployed spell I started reviewing albums again (I used to run my own site, but closed it when university got hard).

Things really got crazy in June, though, when Rivmixx took me on as staff writer. To quote Danny: "He looked like a rabbit in the headlights for the first 48 hours, but then he just got on with it." From then on it was a summer of festival reviews, frantic news writing and lots and lots of gigs. Loop Festival in Brighton was probably my festival highlight - an awesome city festival with a knack for picking bands that explode a year later. I caught Fanfarlo there and they more than lived up to my high expectations, America's cottoned on to them now and they're doing well for themselves out there.

In terms of my favourites from the year , White Denim's  'Fits', Animal Collective's  'Merriweather Post Pavillion' and Mumford and Sons 'Sigh No More' stand out as my top three. The office is now particularly fed up with the Mumford album and I have been band from playing any more "twiddley sh*t". Finally, my favourite gig was Monotonix Upstairs at the Highbury Garage in August, they were crazy and they still sounded great."

 

Liz Stokes' Year In Music.animal collective's - Rivmixx' "Top-Notch" Reviews Editor

"After finally finishing my education for good and throwing my mortarboard to the sky, 2009 landed me in Rivmixx. Initially bowling through the door for a three month internship,  I kind of just didn't leave and am now the proud owner of the 'reviews editor' title. The summer took me all over the country as I trawled through mud, rain and, occasionally, sunshine to get the low down on several handfuls worth of festivals.

Glade was incredible, The Big Chill was amazing, Global Gathering was mind blowing where as Glastonbury and Reading seemed to have lost their magic. Musically The Nextmen were one of my favourite finds this year- via Roisin. But '09 seems to have done funny things to my head too.

I started the year an avid dance music fan and as the months have crept by pop just keeps getting better. I can't resist a bit of JLS or Chipmunk in the morning, let alone nearly destroying Matt "Rivmixx" Parker by pumping N-Dubz at any given opportunity. Saying that, however, perhaps I can begin to redeem my credible music journalist moniker a little by expressing my new found love for The xx? Or am I just late with that?

To sum it up, 2009 has been my year to fall in love with pop music."

 

Chris Ecclestone's Year In Music - Rivmixx's "Metal Head" Content Administrator

"For me 2009 has been a positive year. At the start I was recording and remixing from my project studio and writing music.  I've been spending many an hour playing guitar and playing with my new studio gear and pedals and although I haven't been in a touring band this year I've enjoyed jamming and writing music by myself and with various collaborators. I've seen the local Reading music scene establish itself as the finest source of metal in the UK too.

A group of lads from the Reading metal scene that I watched do their first shows in local pubs and clubs have become one of the most impressive bands in the country right now. The Arusha Accord released the debut album 'The Echoe Verses', which is my album of the year; an impressive mix of tech metal musicianship with the songwriting ability to hold your attention.

Another top album would have to be Saturday Night Live's The Lonely Island that released their debut comedy album 'Incredibad', which featured some hilarious collaborations from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Julian Casablancas and vocoder overlord T-pain. I don't usually go in for comedy music but this is so well executed and hilarious plus their YouTube videos are amazing.

That said, perhaps the biggest thing for me this year was getting my job at Rivmixx. Since starting  I've learnt that creating a successful website is a lot of hard work and starting an online music magazine and network is even more challenging. There's a whole crazy world of analytics and SEO as well as the unstable time bomb that is code.

Although the works been hard it's been incredibly rewarding; new friends, a greater insight and understanding of the music industry, and being exposed to a wider range of music, some good - Chase & Status  - and some bad - Mumford and Sons. I'm looking forward to what 2010 will bring my way."

Written by: Everyone

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