The "State of the Blog" Address

When looking back on the year that was 2007, I can only match the sentiment that has been so brilliantly popularized by Keanu Reeves..."whoah."

I started this blog back in March of 2006 out of complete boredom. I used it solely for reviews, and they weren't really that good either. But I kept it up, kept writing, kept improving. By November of 2006, I was ready to start taking it more seriously. This is where Audio Overflow began.

2007 was an amazing year, primarily because of the progress that this blog has made, and continues to make. In January, I started posting videos to the blog every week as part of the Video of the Week feature. These videos were usually music videos that I thought were interesting, or for songs that I enjoyed. By March I added two new features. Top 5 Friday has been a hit with most of you, and chances are that a lot of you first discovered Audio Overflow through this feature. Go News Go! - The Weekly News Recap has been an on again off again type of thing, and I'm still not entirely convinced of its usefullness.

In October, I started myspace music monday, which introduces you to really talented or unique artists that you probably haven't heard of.Perhaps the biggest addition to Audio Overflow in 2007 was the addition of our new writer, Jill. Jill came on just in time for the Top 31 of 2007 countdown, or "hell month" as I refer to it. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of her eclectic tastes in music. I know I do! The addition of Jill to Audio Overflow will continue to pay off in 2008 as she offers up opinions on music that you may not have heard of otherwise. I would definitely expect a wider array of music to be discussed on the blog in 2008.

Audio Overflow not only increased its staff in 2007, but it's reader base as well. I didn't begin tracking traffic data until June 1, 2007, so exact yearly totals are hard to come by. But I can say with a wide grin on my face that we had 13x more visitors on January 1, 2008 than we did on June 1, 2007. This is not a fluke either, as our average daily visitor totals have increased by 700% since that same date. There is a clear trend of growth for this blog, and I sincerely thank all of you who have continued to visit Audio Overflow for music reviews and opinions.

Audio Overflow: "Now Reppin' Ivory Coast"

Coming in 2008 are two new features that we at Audio Overflow hope that you'll enjoy.

The first feature, which will begin next Thursday (and continue every Thursday afterwards) is tentatively titled Moods. This feature will take a specific mood, "whimiscal" or "somber," for example, and present to you a playlist to accompany that mood. So if you're having rage issues on a particular day, we'll do our best to feed or soothe your rage through our own custom-picked music playlist. Jill will be in charge of this feature, and I'm sure she'll do a great job!

The second feature is currently a secret, and it will be announced soon. Sorry.
The goal is to have something new for you every day here on Audio Overflow, whether it's a list, a video, a review, or streaming music (which is another thing you should plan on seeing a lot of). Hopefully 2008 will bring another writer or two to further diversify the music discussed on Audio Overflow and to increase the content available to you, the reader.

As it stands, things are looking pretty good for Audio Overflow. With a new writer, new features, and an ever-increasing amount of readers, things are bound to get even more exciting around here! Thanks to all of you who have supported this blog over the past year. We hope you will continue to support us in 2008!