Michigan's biggest year for music and how to keep it spinning

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Music has sustained us through difficult times, showcased in words, photos, videos and podcasts at Local Spins. Now, we hope you’ll help sustain our mission — and you could win big in the process.

A Banner Year for Michigan Music: Just some of the artists and live events that we’ve covered. (Photos/Local Spins)

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West Michigan's music scene

Local Spins wants you to become part of our music community.

The explosion of live music and the return of that vigorous concert and festival scene to every corner of Michigan was welcomed by thousands of fans and musicians this year – and Local Spins was there covering much of it in words, photos and videos.

Indeed, 2022 rolled out in more robust fashion than the pre-pandemic summer of 2019, putting our writers and photographers on the road and keeping everyone at Local Spins hopping to keep up.

Here’s just a sampling of our coverage in just the past year:

• BAND FEATURES – Local Spins profiled more than 120 Michigan bands and solo artists, with many of these stories featuring videos and audio tracks, along with details about their upcoming performances.

Electric Forest: One of many festivals spotlighted by Local Spins. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

• SHOW AND FESTIVAL COVERAGE – The website reviewed or recapped more than 300 concerts in words and photos, posted more than 75 stories about Michigan music festivals, and reviewed more than 70 new albums by Michigan artists.

• SPOTLIGHTING MICHIGAN-MADE MUSIC – Local Spins purchases hundreds of songs/tracks by Michigan artists every year, supporting their art financially and debuting their music during the weekly Local Spins on WYCE (88.1 FM) radio show at 11 a.m. Fridays. Many of these songs would never otherwise be aired on radio anywhere else.

• FESTIVAL AND CONCERT LISTINGS – Local Spins continued to maintain the only comprehensive listings of Michigan music festivals and free outdoor community concerts that are staged in more than 100 cities across the region every summer. They’re two of the website’s most popular features that many readers depend on for concert planning.

• GROWING OUR COMMUNITY OF READERS – The website set new readership records in six different months over the past year.

Unfortunately, those gaudy stats don’t tell the whole story.

While our costs to maintain the website, cover gas costs and other expenses, and pay our writers and photographers have skyrocketed, Local Spins ad revenues have fallen short of pre-pandemic levels, partly because some advertisers haven’t returned to the fold and some venues still aren’t staging regular live music.

Only a handful of festivals, in fact, have chosen to support us through advertising, in spite of our mission to spotlight and tout their events for our readers.

Even more concerning, reader revenues that truly helped sustain us during the COVID pandemic – collected through our PressPatron partner – have dropped: Donations were 60 percent lower in September 2022 than in September 2020.

Local Spins simply can’t continue to provide the same level of music scene coverage without boosting our support from users. If you’re a reader of Local Spins and you value what we do, please consider a monthly donation to keep the website spinning. Even a one-time contribution will help us cover the region’s burgeoning music scene.

John Sinkevics of Local Spins

Donate online here.

As a bonus, all readers who contribute to Local Spins via PressPatron in October will be placed in a drawing for special Local Spins gift packages that include concert tickets, T-shirts and fabulous Local Spins swag.

Our undying gratitude goes out to all of our advertisers and readers who’ve continued to support us — and those who’ve spread the word about Local Spins — because we don’t want to turn this website publication into a subscriber-only service or force users to pay for our content.

Over the past decade, we’ve become a vital cog in showcasing and supporting Michigan musicians, venues, festivals and organizations which create and sustain the state’s vibrant music scene.

Please help us continue our role as a key player in that community.

– Sincerely and with great appreciation, John Sinkevics (editor and publisher of Local Spins)