Rantipole

Hey! My name is Travis Shosa and I'm the editor and lead writer of Rantipole, a small print publication coming April 2024. You may or may not have seen my writing at Bandcamp Daily, Pitchfork, The Alternative, Post-Trash, Merry-Go-Round Mag and others. Music journalism is in a very weird and not good state right now! Lots of publications are shuttering, going through mass layoffs, being passed around by vulture capitalists, have slimy ethics, squeeze out lesser-known artists from coverage, or don't pay. It's rough out here! I'm not so arrogant as to suggest that Rantipole is the solution to these problems. But I think it's important for new projects to start popping up. If this isn't the wave, I'd like it to be a ripple in the wave. We're trying print. In April 2024, 1,000 print editions of Rantipole issue #1 will be made available: an 88-page A4-size full-color saddle-stitched zine featuring 10 interview features and 40 album reviews. The features will be long and in-depth: ~2,000 words on average, which is relatively typical for a cover story. No half-page features with a couple quotes, no wildly disproportion coverage based on artist popularity. The artist with 6 fans is respected in the same way one with 600,000 fans is. Our cover might not be the "biggest" artist. We're trying something here. We hope you like it. Our issue #1 features include: Mo Troper Cheem Pacing ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Our reviews are also substantiative: ~800 words on average. We want to dig pretty deep into these largely overlooked records in order to help you discover something new and figure out if you'd like to check it out. We can use all the support we can get. I'm paying for the print and contributor fees out-of-pocket and it's going to cost well over what I made freelancing in 2023 just to put out issue #1. I have the money and issue #1 is a lock, but to ease the financial burden and ensure future issues, I need help. $1 or even just sharing this with a friend is massively appreciated. If you donate $3 or more between now and the end of February, we'll include your name in the "Sponsors" section of issue #1. If we raise $5,000 between donations, ads, and merch sales, we'll make the commitment to issue #2. If we raise $10,000, we'll be able to increase the print run for issue #2 and increase the contributor rates. Thank you so much if you've made it all the way through this! I'm excited to bring this new project to life soon!

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