This week, we got the last bit of equipment we needed ahead of TouhouFest at the end of the month, plus our first major support campaign turns 7 years old. For more info, read on.
This is a really light work week in terms of tasks completed for the station (and an exceptionally heavy week for academic work). As such, I’ve taken the time to let you know we have a couple additional cables (ooh), some rope for our vinyl banner (aah), and a compressor which mimics the same model we had some years ago, but now is part of our studio’s audio rack. Plus, we grabbed a headset for whoever fulfills the audio engineer role during our time in California less than two weeks from this post.
We remain behind on podcast publishing, patron updates, and mobile app development. If you’ve been following along, that’s great, but for those who haven’t, the delays have been primarily caused by ongoing academic workload. Variety streams have largely been pushed aside in favor of gaining some additional work time, but unfortunately very little of this time has been able to go towards station work. That said, we’re less than four weeks away from semester’s end, when coursework ends and time management shifts to a combination of station work, portfolio work, and job searching.
In 2016, we began searching for ways to escape the need for external work in favor of committing as much time as we can to our mission of elevating independent artists, expanding listeners’ horizons, and advocating for music events to better connect fans with creators. At the heart of it is the lackluster subject of funding. At first, our store helped us fund the station’s ongoing costs. Then, starting on April 16th, 2016, Patreon went towards people-oriented costs associated with managing the platform. Later, we tried in-stream advertising to keep things afloat during a global pandemic. Most recently, we’ve upgraded our store, offered publishing to smaller artists, and spun up our own membership program through Gensokyo Radio’s “Indigo”.
Every step of the way, our listeners have been there to help cover station costs and part of our own, but it’s only ever been a fraction of what’s needed for any one person to survive. I’m incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received over the years; truly, it has helped us get through some difficult moments over the years, but a replacement for a salary it is not. Touhou’s niche nature limits our ability to convert “music fans” to “Touhou music fans”, and as a result our audience likely isn’t large enough or dedicated enough to support the dream we set out to fulfill nearly 7 years ago to the day.
Regardless of whether our store and publishing work can grow into something greater, or if this project is destined to forever remain a humble hobby, I want to thank you for your understanding of the nature of our station, the work we do, and the limited time we’re able to dedicate to its ongoing development and support. As one of the western world’s biggest advocates of independent music in this niche space, I hope to continue from here forward with Gensokyo Radio and our enthusiastic staff team, and I look forward to seeing you around in our community as well as at events like TouhouFest and beyond. Thanks for listening!
[Knowledge #113]