Throughout the last few weeks I chose to take a closer and especially inside look at Resident Advisor, an online magazine / community focussing on the Electronic Music Culture worldwide with supposedly 500,000 monthly readers.
Being enthusiastic about electronic music myself the choice to sign up for RA was easy and not far fetched at all. I had been stumbling upon RA from time to time when searching for DJs or topic related news, but just haven't been eager to actually create an account yet. The given assignment was impulse enough to finally do so.
I must admit that my active participation within the community has been quite limited so far and not as intense as I had expected it to be. The main reason is probably, as stupid as it might sound, the simple lack of time. Two rather time consuming modules on the one hand and also an already wide spread engagement in various other communities / social networks on the other just didn't leave me with a lot of timely resources to go considerably far beneath the surface.
Another reason is the type of interaction itself. I didn't have any expectations regarding the type of users I would eventually be confronted with and was therefore open to anything, but as time has passed I just don't seem to be 'that much into it' to go ahead and contribute in the chosen frame of topics on a regular basis. I enjoy all facets of electronic music, but to involve myself in any kind of thorough conversations about it just doesn't attract me after all.
Besides, the quite deep structure of the forums, which are divided by continents and even countries, certainly do provide you with users and content easier to relate to due to the proximity, but unfortunately it ends up in having mostly previews and reviews of events on the national level.
What I actually did quite frequently take advantage of though, was the possibility to subscribe for a weekly electronic music podcast and also the option to browse through picture galleries from events worldwide. Being an event photographer myself that's probably the feature I would consider most valuable up to now.
Considering the different types of user there are in online communities I would define myself a lurker in this particular case. I enjoyed the features there are and even found two people I know from the clubs, one good thing about all these event previews, but an actual interaction with other community members didn't evolve, as these two themselves for example are pretty much inactive.
Understanding Resident Advisor as the online magazine it states to be rather then a community by definition, I would not suggest any changes or improvements in the overall concept. Their main focus is of editorial nature and this claim is thoroughly met through high quality and quantity content.
Operating offices on London and Berlin there are most-likely full-time employees working for the company, but as there is no information given regarding the business model behind Resident Advisor Ltd. I can just assume that income is mostly generated with advertisements in terms of banner placements (consumer products: i.e. Canon) as well as event promotion (banners, newsletters, and so on).
Ziek of niet ziek
11 months ago
