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In 2020, upon taking back control of this site from the company that acquired it from another company, I did all things you're supposed to do to diversify revenue, which had come 100% from advertising: writing a newsletter, building a merch shop, adding affiliate links, partnering on live events, and most importantly launching a paid subscription program. Things were looking great, with Stereogum becoming the most popular standalone music website in America according to Comscore. Traffic and revenue increased every year.

We would not be in business without our community of paying members (thank you!) but a lot has changed in five years, and some new obstacles have made the outlook for web publishers particularly dire. Advertising still accounts for the vast majority of Stereogum's revenue (hit us up if you would like to advertise!) but starting this year the so-called "media traffic apocalypse" caused by Google's pivot to AI search has cut our ad revenue by 70%. Prior to that, Facebook and X's deprioritization of links hurt too, but I can't downplay the brutal impact of AI Overview.

We don't want to rely on these AI-riddled platforms for referral traffic, and fortunately we still have millions of monthly readers who visit directly. But we need more of you to pay to sustain this operation.

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