Blabbermouth.net
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| URL | blabbermouth.net |
|---|---|
| Type of site | News and reviews |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | Borivoj Krgin |
| Created by | Borivoj Krgin |
| Launched | March 3, 2001 |
| Current status | Active |
Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was officially launched in March 2001. In October 2001, the website's design was completely changed and the record label Roadrunner Records began hosting it.
Users can post comments to selected news articles and album reviews, either in response to other user comments or in response to the article itself. Blabbermouth.net, described by the London Free Press as a "reliable industry and fan site",[1] has been widely cited as a source on heavy metal and hard rock.
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[edit] History
Founder Borivoj Krgin came up with the concept of Blabbermouth in January 2000. Robert Kampf, a friend of Krgin who runs Century Media Records, was staying with Krgin in New York and set up a meeting with Gunter Ford of World Management. During the meeting, Ford suggested an idea for a "heavy metal portal," a site which would offer news, merchandise, and CD reviews to get record labels to sell their products through the site. Ford wanted Kampf to be involved. Krgin disliked the idea and wished for a site that offered around-the-clock news, as he thought that no good news sites existed.[2]
Krgin began researching how to develop and host his own website two months after the meeting. After a year Krgin felt comfortable going "live." The initial "primitive" version of the site was launched on March 3, 2001. In October of the same year Monte Conner, a friend of Krgin, and a Roadrunner Records artist and repertoire approached Krgin with the idea of having the site hosted on the Roadrunner servers. This way, Krgin could focus on Blabbermouth.net's content rather than the technical aspects involved in running a site.[2]
In February 2011, the website added a 'Shop' link to the site, clicking on the link takes you to a page that says "Coming Soon".
[edit] Sources
According to his own words, Krgin spends most of his time operating the site, supposedly missing out on sleep and other life essentials.[2] When finding information relating to bands Krgin claims to search bands official websites (including social networking sites ), which are usually reported on immediately, and band message boards where members of the band post. However, Krgin relies on the contacts he has made over the years ranging from band members, metal journalists, managers and other people in the music industry, stating this is where the "best" information comes from.[2]
Krgin supposedly sends e-mails and makes telephone calls daily to obtain new information. Blabbermouth.net has a 'submit news' feature which has proved to be helpful to Krgin. When receiving a rumor he deems worthy of posting, Krgin will first research and contact people related to the band and question them about the rumour. It's claimed that 90% of the information posted is either found online or is submitted directly to the website by bands, managers, labels or associated persons.[2]
[edit] Criticism
Blabbermouth.net has been criticized by musicians and music industry persons for internet trolls (users that make derogatory comments) and news posts that are unrelated to heavy metal or hard rock.[2] Krgin said he posts these articles to attract humorous comments from users, and as relief from the constant monotony of album news.[2]
In September 2006, Krgin claims to have performed a cleanup of Blabbermouth.net's comments and to have adopted a policy whereby users can report offensive comments in order to have them deleted from the site. Prior to this, in his own words, "countless abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic and threatening comments" had been posted on the site since the "comments" feature was implemented in early 2002.[3]
[edit] Traffic
Blabbermouth.net is visited by more than 1.2 million unique users each month, and it has an average of 80,000 unique visitors per day, according to Google Analytics (as of August 2011). The busiest day so far was 298,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which occurred on the day of Ronnie James Dio's passing (May 16, 2010). The second-busiest day was more than 200,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which happened the day after the death of Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele -- April 15, 2010.
Busiest days in Blabbermouth.net's history—as measured in "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics):
- Sunday, May 16, 2010: 298,378 (the day Ronnie James Dio died)
- Thursday, April 15, 2010: 206,183 (the day after Peter Steele died)
- Monday, May 17, 2010: 170,905 (the day after Ronnie James Dio died)
- Monday, May 24, 2010: 154,969 (the day Paul Gray was found dead)
- Thursday, December 9, 2004: 154,000 (the day after "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was murdered)
Each of the figures above represents the number of "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics) that visited Blabbermouth.net in a single 24-hour period. The figures were provided by Google Analytics except for the December 9, 2004 number of unique visitors, which came from WebTrends.
Blabbermouth.net's busiest month so far was May 2010, with 1,675,645 "Absolute Unique Visitors," according to Google Analytics -- primarily driven by extra traffic caused by the deaths of Ronnie James Dio and Slipknot bassist Paul Gray.
Blabbermouth.net is ranked as the 29,897 most trafficked Web sites according to Alexa.[4] However, this number is misleading as it only covers the visits to www.blabbermouth.net, which is a small portion of the web site's traffic (since the actual web site hosted by Roadrunner Records and is located at www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net, which is not included separately in the Alexa rankings).
Blabbermouth.net has more 101,000 registered users (users who are registered to post comments on the site) as of August 2011.
[edit] Recognition
Blabbermouth.net, described by the London Free Press as a "reliable industry and fan site",[1] is widely recognized as an authority on heavy metal and hard rock. It has been cited as a source by the London Free Press,[1] New Musical Express,[5][6] MTV.com,[7][8] the Toronto Sun,[9][10] the Baltic News Service,[11] the St. Petersburg Times,[12] News.com.au,[13] and OC Weekly.[14]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Reaney, James (April 15, 2008). "Motley Crue set to rock Sarnia, sources say." London Free Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g "13 QUESTIONS WITH... Blabbermouth's Borivoj Krgin". Metal Sludge. 2004-02-24. http://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=739&Itemid=37. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
- ^ BLABBERMOUTH.NET: Cleaning Up The Crap - Sep. 28, 2006
- ^ "Alexa - Blabbermouth.net". Alexa.com. 2008-08-02. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/blabbermouth.net?q=blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
- ^ "Killing Joke reform and tour." New Musical Express. March 3, 2008.
- ^ "Led Zeppelin singer hopeful 'grateful' for audition." New Musical Express. January 21, 2009.
- ^ O'Donnell, Jane (May 7, 2007). "A.M. Surf Report." MTV.com. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
- ^ Harris, Chris (April 1, 2008). "Scott Weiland Parts Ways With Velvet Revolver." MTV.com. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
- ^ "Nails Set Date." Toronto Sun. January 21, 2005.
- ^ "In case you were on Mars the past week ..." Toronto Sun. June 24, 2007.
- ^ "Ozzy Osbourne to come to Lithuania in summer." Baltic News Service. January 26, 2007.
- ^ "Loud & fast." St. Petersburg Times. March 20, 2009.
- ^ "AC/DC's new hit Black Ice No. 1 in 29 countries." News.com.au. October 29, 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
- ^ Kane, Rich (December 26, 2002). "Steaming Malmsteen." OC Weekly. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
