5 Years of MATRIXSYNTH!!!

It's that time again. Today is the five year anniversary of MATRIXSYNTH!!! I like to share a little bit about how the site ticks in these posts, some of the history for those that don't know it, some miscellaneous insights this year, and of course some numbers.

It all started back in July 20, of 2005, with a brief post wishing Dr. Bob Moog well. The brevity of the post was a bit of a foreshadowing of what the site would become.

I started the blog when the old site just wasn't cutting it anymore. I created the old site back in 1997 (before The Matrix movies ever existed BTW) as a personal portal for the various synth sites I used to visit. In 2005, blogging was just becoming popular. I found that I had a difficult time keeping track of things in email, my favorites list and the old site. The problem was many of the interesting bits were buried within sites, and possibly more importantly, a new method of sharing information was just emerging. Flickr (Feb 2004) and YouTube (Feb 2005) were just starting, Vimeo (Nov 2004) was relatively unknown, and SoundCloud (Aug 2007) wasn't even around yet.

In 2005, I created MATRIXSYNTH, the blog. I started tracking "Everything Synth". I let people know on various synth forums and email lists I belonged to about the site. In time it grew and people started sending things in. I realized what the site was becoming. It wasn't just a place for me to track stuff, but a place for anyone into synths. It was a daily heartbeat on what people were doing with their synths, not just a news site. In the beginning I posted every single image that came in on Flickr featuring a synth, and every single video on YouTube. It was fascinating at the time, because before then you never really saw what other people were doing, unless you knew them, or unless they had the means to host their own website. Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud, Blogger, Word Press, and other hosting sites changed this. The site became a place for people to share and promote what they were doing. I received emails from people thanking me for connections they made because of the site. Many sites announced themselves here including DVDBORN (Jan 2, 2006), Muff Wiggler (Dec 4, 2006), TRASH_AUDIO (Oct 22, 2007), Analog Suicide (Dec 23, 2007), NOISESOURCE (April 22, 2008), and many others. The site currently gets over half a million pageviews a month. Think about that. More on the numbers in a bit. Before I get bombarded, I no longer post site announcements simply for the sake of site announcements. At 50 posts a day, it would be suicide and with the amount I post and I would take you all down with me. :) Posts have to be about specific synths, and via links are given.

There have also been a plethora of product announcements from manufacturers that read the site - too many to list. BTW, be sure see the MANUFACTURERS section on the right and the MANUFACTURERS page for a list of manufacturers that read the site and have taken the time out to send in a small 250px x 100px image. Note placement on this page is free. If you are a manufacturer, send me an image and I will add it. Note some dealers are listed there as well. Back to some history...

When I first started the blog, I wanted to put up a post at least once a week. It turned out to be more like once a day. I then wanted to put a minimum of five posts up a day, and then 10. I remember days when I didn't think I was going to hit it, and I remember days when I was so stressed out due to the sheer number and complexity of certain posts that I was ready to give it up. Every single post on this site is put up manually - there is zero automation. I now put up close to fifty posts every single day, seven days a week! With the exception of August 6, 2005, at least one post has gone up every single day since the inception of the site. If I only knew then what I know now I would have posted something on that one day. [Note: I thought I missed more than one day, but I couldn't find others - check out the archives in the right by clicking on the side triangles to drill down - if anyone finds another day I missed, let me know]. For those that are curious, it takes me anywhere between about four and six hours a day to do this. How do I have the time? Eight hours (usually less) of sleep, eight hours work, and eight hours for everything else (blog). I do contract-based work from home, so the entire day is pretty much spent behind my laptop working, with only a few breaks for food and a bike ride so I don't melt into my lazy boy. Weekends I get out and make time for my synths, friends, family, etc. The site pretty much is a full time job including weekends. How do I do it? I love it!!! That and there is a technique I honed over the years as crazy as it sounds. The more you do anything, the easier it becomes. It doesn't feel like work to me and even though things are not automated, I have a rhythm and a routine that I have relatively mastered. It took a couple of years to get that rhythm down. Now it's a bit of an addiction. That and with contract-based work I also work in surges, meaning some days are busier than others, and in between contracts I have more time on the blog. It all just works out. This brings me back to the note on that very first post back on July 20. At the time, I really didn't know what to say. It was an awkward first post but with the news that day, I knew that had to be the first post. I thought about what to write and I realized there was nothing I could say, other than providing the link, asking others to wish him well, and getting the heck out of the way. The post wasn't about me, it was about him. That has pretty much evolved into the theme of the site to this day. I want people to experience what others are doing, not my reflections on it. Once I realized that, posting became much easier. Part of this was also realizing that the number of posts going up can be difficult to consume, for myself included. The less I say the less time I waste. I try to keep things short, to the point, and myself out of the post. The site is a bit like conveyor belt sushi, a buffet, or tapas bar. Stuff constantly comes in and you can either take all of it in, or just pick what you want. The cool thing is everything is archived so you can come back to it later.

Some people ask me why Blogger? The reason is it's free and it's owned and hosted by Google. If I'm ever unable to run the site for whatever reason it will stay up. We have lost too many great synth sites over the years unfortunately. The excellent drummachine.com immediately comes to mind. If anyone remembers the site, it was the best site dedicated to drum machines - tons of pics, details and audio samples. It's now a promotion site. This is going to sound crazy, but the limitations of Blogger also keep things a bit more manageable and in check. I like the site as it is. It is what it is and that's what makes the site.

Time for some numbers. I'll try to keep it short this time. According to Google Analytics, since the inception of the site, there has been a total of 8,054,806 visits and 16,856,224 pageviews. That's up from 5,774,890 visits and 11,233,869 pageviews as of last year. If you look at the bottom of the site you will see Site Meter has me at 8,337,466 pageviews. This is because I started Google Analytics after Site Meter and I missed adding back the Google Analytics code a couple of times when updating my template. If you click on the map, you will see we are still missing a few countries. North Korea, I haven't said anything bad about you!!! It blows me away to think visits came in from some places. I chose the map for the image in this post because of this. This site is global. You get to see what people around the world are doing with synths on a daily basis. The site exists because of everyone out there who loves synths - you, me, and those that may not even know about the site yet. It's been a great five years and I look forward to the next. THANK YOU!!!

Update: Twitter: via Chris Carter!!!
http://chriscarter.co.uk/ @chris_carter_
http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/
http://www.chrisandcosey.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Carter_%28musician%29

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MATRIXSYNTH from Chris Carter on Vimeo.

"Experimentally yours...

Chris Carter"

Update: I forgot to note the number of posts since the inception of the site. Including this post there was a total of 43,951.