Welcome to the brand-new AltWire! If you have been reading us for a long time, this is the biggest redesign we’ve ever done in the 11+ years we’ve been online. A lot has changed, so we wanted to highlight the improvements.
Speed
AltWire for years has had an issue with overall site speed. That was our primary goal with this redesign. We’ve significantly improved loading times (by as much as 90% in some cases!). We are on a new server with plenty of capacity, and pages load instantly now!
A Brand New Front Page
Another major change is the front page. Gone is the blog-style front page that has been a staple of our front page for much of the past decade, replaced by a modern front page. You’ll find links to our audio podcast and videos, many of which we will safely assume you’ve never seen as the old site buried them. And why the front page may look cleaner, there is twice the content on the page as our old front page!
If you scroll to the bottom, we’ve also added a feature that lists currently trending articles on the site, great if you’re not sure what to read.
A New Home for Our Podcast
Our podcast used to be on a separate site, but is now on AltWire. It’s also more tightly integrated into the site, including the front page. You still however can access it directly by visiting altwirepodcast.com.
Subscriptions and Personalization
You will also notice throughout the site features which personalize AltWire to your interests. Subscribing to AltWire is free, and allows us to recommend content you’d most be interested in. We’re also launching a weekly newsletter with our new subscription, which will help you keep up to date on the latest from AltWire. Over time, subscribers will gain access to exclusive content, which again did we mention was free? 🙂
A New Design
Our old design served us (somewhat) well for much of the past half-decade. However, it was way outdated for today’s web. It was built at a time when most of us were still using a desktop computer.
Our new design is built with the idea you’re looking at it on a mobile phone. However some of you are not, and if you’re on a desktop you’ll notice a massive difference in space and font size. Everything is much more spread out, and easier to read.
While we continue to have ads on the site, the new design has allowed us to spread those out. They no longer take over the page, which was a problem before. We’re looking into ways to allow contributing podcast subscribers to disable ads completely (give us some time on that one).
Our YouTube channel and videos will play a much larger role, and you can find a playlist on our front page. We’ve developed a video library we’ve nicknamed “The Vault” so you don’t even have to leave AltWire to see them. Of course, we’d love it if you’d subscribe to our YouTube channel, too!
We’ve kept the colors, adding some purple too. All pages have lots of space now, and there’s a lot more contrast. For those with vision issues, this will be a very welcome change — although it also makes for a much more comfortable read for everyone.
And yes, we’re now available in FIVE languages, see the language switcher in the menu bar!
Loading times are vastly improved, by 75% in some cases! That is one of the biggest differences — pages load almost instantly.
What’s Changing
When AltWire started in 2013, the internet was much different. Blogging was the way to get traffic; in our industry, artists gave us quotable and linkable content. But over the past decade, and especially post-pandemic, people started to prefer audio or video. Artists did too: they’d want something to share on their social media, and people don’t want to READ an interview… they want to hear it, see it.
That was the whole reason for The AltWire Podcast. And we’ve had a great time doing it, including some of the most unique interviews you’ve heard on any music interview podcast. But that’s by design: we look for the unconventional because there are hundreds of other podcasts doing the same thing.
However, this has come at the expense of AltWire, the blog. While we’ve had a ton of contributors over the years, AltWire has mostly been a solo or family project. So we’ve decided to merge AltWire the site with AltWire the podcast.
Does this mean that the blog is completely gone? No, we’ll still post stories from time to time, and our blogs will typically tie into our episodes somehow. But you’ll see the podcast much more prominently, everywhere.
The cool thing about merging the two is that we have hundreds of articles, many topical to our podcast episodes. We’ll promote those back stories too from time to time with the podcast episodes when they’re relevant. Not many podcasts have that kind of content library!
When AltWire started in 2013, the internet was much different. Blogging was the way to get traffic; in our industry, artists gave us quotable and linkable content. But over the past decade, and especially post-pandemic, people started to prefer audio or video.
What’s Not Changing
While the type of content you’ll find on AltWire is changing, the subject matter is not. We’ll be covering the same artists, bands, cultural events, and topics as before. We want to stress that. But we think offering it to you in video and audio form is more in line with what readers expect in 2024. To put it simply, we were behind the times.
New Ways to Connect
Along with the changing design, we’re also testing a few new ways to connect with us.
- The AltWire: If you prefer getting notified when we have new content, subscribe to our browser notifications!
- Join us on TikTok: We’re testing the waters on TikTok. Come and join us
- The AltWire Newsletter: A once monthly newsletter of our best content.
Click the links to learn more. We’ll be testing out these features through the summer.
What to Expect
We are focusing on getting podcast episodes out on at least a monthly basis. With AltWire now one, that should be easier. We also will ensure that you’ll be able to follow us on all socials, and you can find the links to those socials in our site footer.
Thank you for a decade of support.
