Drowned in Sound

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The Drowned in Sound logo
The Drowned in Sound logo

DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway (who manage Mick Hucknall and Brett Anderson). The site is an editorial independent music website which is renowned for spotting new music.[citation needed]

DiS started as The Last Resort but was relaunched by founder Sean Adams as Drowned in Sound in 2000. It is managed by Sean Adams, designed by Simon Menhinick and programmed by Matthew Willson with Mike Diver serving as the site's Editor. Core contributors include Alex Denney (Listings Editor / Senior Staff Writer), Kev Kharas (News Editor / Senior Staff Writer) and Gareth Dobson (Senior Staff Writer).

The freelance writing team is currently spread across the globe, with contributors based in four continents - North America, Asia, Europe and Australasia. The site is mostly based on contributions from unpaid writers and has an integrated forum to allow for discussion and comments on interviews, news and reviews. It also includes a user-rated database of artists and bands as well as details for most live music venues (big and small) in the UK. Aside from space for comments, there are separate forums for general discussion, music related discussion and advertisements for people requiring bands or musicians. The site has over 60,000 registered members, and gets around 380,000 unique visitors per month.

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[edit] Ownership

A percentage of DrownedinSound.com (the web site) and DrownedinSound's record label are owned by Silentway Ltd., the independent management company who look after Simply Red, Stina Nordenstam and Brett Anderson. Silentway continue to invest in both businesses. The remaining shares in the record label are owned by founder Sean Adams and the website shares are split between Adams and Matthew Willson, in Adams' favour.

In October 2007, it was announced that DiS had formed a partnership with Rupert Murdoch's Sky media company (http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/2490371). This joint venture with BSkyB was named Quietus Group and the company offices are currently located at 1 Chilworth Mews, Paddington London.

[edit] Message boards

The site's message boards exist in an almost autonomous fashion, with regular posters only occasionally delving into the site's editorial content.[citation needed] Similarly, only a small percentage of the full DiS readership posts comments on a regular basis.

[edit] Awards

On March 19, 2006, The Observer Music Monthly ranked DrownedinSound.com 9th on its list of top 25 internet websites. In November 2006 it passed the 150,000 unique readers a week mark and was nominated in the Best Music Website category at the 2007 PLUG Awards and the Best Website category at the 2007 Shockwaves NME Awards.

The site and a handful of its writers received nominations at the 2006 Record of the Day awards, held in London on November 21, 2006. The site won in the category of Best Podcast and finished runner-up in the category of Best Website for the second year running.

In September 2007, DiS was nominated in two categories at the annual BT Digital Music Awards - best music magazine and best podcast (audio). In November 2007 DiS was named Best Online Music Publication at the annual Record of the Day awards (http://drownedinsound.com/articles/2617536).

[edit] Record label

In 2003 Drowned in Sound started a record label which has released recordings by:

[edit] Podcast

In 2006 the site launched a podcast called Drowned in Sound Radio. The show provides a mixture of very new music with music that hasn't yet reached the mainstream. The show is currently on hiatus.

[edit] External links