Frequently asked questions
What is _nsigned?
_nsigned is a site that publishes reviews of DIY music. Anyone can get their music reviewed, and anyone review peoples' music.
Who is it for?
_nsigned is primarily aimed at three types of people:
- DIY musicians who want to get their music heard and talked about.
- Music lovers who want somewhere to talk about the weird and wonderful DIY music they've been listenined to.
- People who are looking for something new to listen to and need guidance.
What is the goal of the site?
The main goal of the site is to help level the playing field and help artists get their work out there. More than ever, artists are at an advantage if they can afford promotion, or if they have a personality type that suits posting videos on social media. There must be so much great music out there that never gets heard because the artist doesn't have the means or personality to get people to pay attention. This site aims to fix that.
Why only Bandcamp?
The site currently only supports Bandcamp for purely practical reasons:
- Most DIY artists use Bandcamp, even if they prefer other platforms.
- Each supported platform requires different, unique ways to integrate them and adds a tonne of work. The site as it exists now is developed by one person for free, and it's simply unfeasible to support all these different platforms at the moment.
- Only supporting one platform allows it to act as a single source of truth. If an artist has a slightly different name on a different platform, it could end up being duplicated on this site.
Will other platforms be supported in the future?
It's possible. It largely depends on how successful the site is in the long term. However, there are currently no plans to support other platforms.
Which music qualifies?
Almost anything, as long as it's on Bandcamp. The only restrictions are that it must be music and not a podcast or anything like that, and it must not have been made by AI.
Do writers get paid?
The short answer is no.
The long answer is no, mostly because this is a site intended for hobbyists, not journalists. The ethos of the site relies on the idea that there are people who are compelled to write about music and want a place where they can do it. Where the intrinsic reward is writing something that other people will read, rather than the extrinsic reward of being paid for it. If someone were to view writing for this site as work then I would recommend that they stop immediately, both for their own benefit and the benefit of the site.
To put it bluntly, while the site may ape some of the aesthetics of journalism, it is not genuine journalism and should not be viewed as such. Journalism is a legitimate career that takes skill and training, and is an essential part of society. This site should really function closer to a forum than a genuine editorial site.
That said, reviewers can add a fundraiser link to their profile which will appear on all reviews they write. Currently the supported platforms are Bandcamp, PayPal, Ko-Fi, Buymeacoffee, and Patreon.
Is the site monetized?
- Ko-Fi is for one-off donations to support the site. Supporting the site in this manner will not yield any tangible rewards, but I'll try my best to at least send you a little thank you message.
- Patreon is for consistent, monthly support. Supporting the site through Patreon will give you access to a couple new features - an on-site Bandcamp player, and the ability to flesh our your artist page with a bio, featured release, and YouTube video.
The site primarily free to use, and it's important to me that no-one's coverage is restricted if they do not pay. The reason I have monetized it in these two ways is simply because the site is not free to run. Aside from the hundreds of hours I have put into building and maintaining this site, I also need to pay for hosting fees for both the application and the database. For this reason, any support is greatly appreciated!
Why is it called that?
It is a rule of the internet that the most successful websites are typically ones where the name is a normal word with one letter either removed or added.
You could also say that by removing the capital letter of the name, you're showing that it's about focusing on the smaller artists, but to be honest this is a thought that only occurred to me long after naming the site. The fact is that naming the GitHub repo is like the first thing you do when you start working on a project (which is an absurdly early point in development to come up with something), and I already had a GitHub repo that began with the letter U and I wanted to be able to use tab to auto-complete the folder name in my terminal. But also since about 2011 I've wanted to build a website called "The Unsigned Archive" and that idea is where this site finally evolved from.