User:MusicManDan123/Audiotree/LIL EDITOR 1 Peer Review

Content

“In 2018 the company announced its extension of the company into Canada, collaborating with Paquin Entertainment Agency, to help market Artists, and in some cases, help jumpstart their music career. Since 2011, the company has amassed over 330k subscribers on YouTube, and have received over 500 million minutes of watch time across all videos.”

• It’s unclear what the link to Paquin Entertainment Agency is, maybe include a few words describing what they brought to the table and why it’s relevant to the history of Audiotree
• Sentence structure
  • Comma is overused in first sentence, consider a structure like this for fluidity:
    • “In 2018 the company announced its extension of the company into Canada, collaborating with Paquin Entertainment Agency to market artists and help jumpstart their music career.”
• The second sentence feels a little off and could be phrased differently, but I realized that it’s because I expected “views” rather than “minutes watched” as a unit of measurement. Maybe this is where you could quote the article directly.
• The paragraph's structure feels off as it’s not linear, maybe mention their historical growth (2011-present) first and then their 2018 partnership as an example of their more recent endeavours

“In 2015-2016, Audiotree released a series of videos showing behind the scenesof how they prepare video and lighting, acoustic microphones, drum microphones, and even a studio walk through. The studio holds a wide variety of microphones ranging from the AKG 460 or the Royer 122 for acoustic guitar recordings, to a Telefunken M-82 used on the bass drum.”

• Missing space between “behind the scenes” and “of”
• The word “even” comes off as a value judgement
• Unless the timeline is important later on in the article, I would remove the “in 2015-2016” part
• The links to their different videos feels like borderline promotion, I would avoid linking to individual videos or even to any video beyond their actual YouTube channel itself

“In 2019, Audiotree proved capable of maintain their sound quality outside of the studio, starting a new series name Far out sessions.”

• Wording: “capable of maintaining”
• The phrasing “proved capable” feels like a value judgement, I would say something like “took their work outside the studio” maybe?

“Audiotree separates itself from its competitors in large part to their on the spot sound mastering. Using IZotopes Ozone 9 mastering VST, and partnering with Antelope Audio to fill their control room with analog audio equipment; Audiotree's audio engineers are able to make viewers feel as though they are in studio, listening to the artist play right in front of them.”

• Who are their competitors exactly? It’s unclear who you’re comparing them to.
• Also, the first sentence is definitely a value judgement; maybe consider something simple like this:
  • “Audiotree is known for their on-the-spot audio mastering services.”
• Grammar: IZotope’s
• You link the “IZotope” and “VST” wikis, which is sufficient for context. I don’t think an external link to the VST itself is needed here
• The structure of the second sentence is off, you might want to make it into two. Some points:
  • Lead with the subject “Audiotree’s engineers” ['audio’ not needed here; feels repetitive]. If you want to emphasize the viewers’ experience here, you could lead with that too
  • You could consider something like:
  • “The company claims to create an immersive digital space where viewers can feel as though they are in the studio themselves. Due to a partnership with Antelope Audio, Audiotree’s engineers use analog equipment with IZotope’s Ozone 9 software to master user-submitted music.”
  • To be honest, I don’t think mentioning their partnership with Antelope Audio is relevant here. Along with the IZotope mention, it takes the focus away from Audiotree itself.

“Audiotree's series known as Audiotree Live, is broadcasted from the studio, directly to YouTube and the Audiotree website for fans to listen live.”

• “Audiotree” is mentioned 3 times in this sentence, consider using synonymous terms
• The sentence is much longer than it needs to be. No need to mention the studio (you went over that in the last section) or the fans as that seems obvious
  • “Audiotree Live is broadcasted on their website and YouTube.”

“Audiotree has organized an annual music festival in Michigan since 2012. Typically hosted in September, the Audiotree Music Festival took place at the Arcadia Creek Festival place which can accommodate approximately 8000 people, and sees regular festivals such as Blues Fest, Rib Fest, and Taste of Kalamazoo. The festival would take place every year until 2019 where Johnston and Thurston announced that they would be looking in another direction. As opposed to continuing the tradition, Audiotree instead shifted their focus to hosting special concerts at their independently owned venues Lincoln Hall and Schubas, which were celebrating their 10th and 30th year anniversaries since being opened.”

• This paragraph talks more about the venues and locations where the festival takes place rather than Audiotree’s festival itself
• Consider cutting out anything that isn’t directly relevant to the Audiotree Music Festival here

“Towards the end of 2020, and beginning of 2021, Audiotree began organizing live virtual concerts under a new segment called "Staged". This segment invites fan's to pay a small fee, allowing them to join a private broadcast of the show, which they can stream as much as they want for 24 hours after completion.”

• Going under the assumption that they went digital due to COVID, maybe try starting off with “In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Audiotree began […]” as it seems more fitting than a somewhat vague timeline
• The second sentence structure is off:
  • “Fans pay a small fee for unlimited access to a private broadcast for 24 hours.”

“Audiotree typically shares revenue from sales of live session recordings with the artist, usually split 50:50. The company works mainly with independent musicians that are independent or on independent music labels.”

• The second sentence should maybe come first here, as it seems like a more general statement while the first goes more into specifics (revenue splitting)

“Johnston acknowledges that they did not invent filming live studio sessions. However, Audiotree has quickly become one of the top music video outlets, who's business model capitalizes especially via YouTube and other video services. It was reported in 2016 that 80% of people stream their music online (Music 360 Report) allowing Audiotree to accumulate streams and revenue continuously across all of their recorded sessions.”

• First sentence is not relevent unless you demonstrate that someone has claimed that they did invent filming live studio sessions
• The second sentence comes off like your personal opinion and is not valid unless you cite multiple sources that back up this claim
• The third sentence seems misleading… what does the fact that in 2016, 80% of people were streaming music online have to do with Audiotree? From what I gathered, their model focuses on live video streams, not music (i.e. Spotify) streaming
• I would instead use this sentence to explain/back up the previous claim

“2020-2021 has been a difficult time for music venues given the COVID-19 pandemics limitations on public gatherings. As owners of independent venues, Johnston and Thurston have released merchandise, available online, in order to help afford maintenance and other venue fees.”

• This could be one sentence:
  • “To help struggling music venues during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnston and Thurston….”

Notes

• Having personally not heard of Audiotree before, I struggled to understand what they actually did until the ‘Business Model’ section
  • The whole time, I wondered: are they a recording studio? A mixing/mastering company? A platform for promoting artists? A distributor? A place for users to discover new music?
  • They seem to do a lot, so it might be worth placing the ‘Business Model’ section at the very start or even incorporating it into the article heading itself so that the rest of the information can be referenced directly
• The company name is mentioned very frequently, making the article feel somewhat like a press release. I would maybe avoid it in some places, using “the company….” or similar terms
• The title of the “Recording/Broadcasting Process” section does not take into account the mastering aspects you mention. You may want to keep “Recording” and “Mastering” together (maybe using a blanket term like “Production”?) and merge the “Broadcasting” portion with the following “Live Events” section
  • Rather, I think you could even merge all of them into one “Services” (or something) section that explains everything they do
  • The article could be composed of a heading, the “History” and a “Services” section that breaks down all that they do into smaller categories
• A lot of external links are used to things that are not necessarily relevant (but related) to the topic, consider using the “See also” and “External links” section for those
• Be careful to maintain neutral language, and provide evidence for the claims where you compare Audiotree to its competitors or to the market as a whole (i.e. Audiotree is one of the top…”, as this can easily be fact-checked and your article will be taken down

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