We've announced new perks and a Referral contest! Read our latest update for more details.
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Stretch goals have been announced! Check out the campaign blog for more details.
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Help us launch the next generation of media discovery.
Sonemic, Cinemos, and Glitchwave are three new websites focused on discovering music, films, and video games. These sites are the next generation of Rate Your Music. Collectively, they are named the Sonemic network.
Our mission is to build and maintain incredibly detailed music, film and game databases - and then, to provide as many ways as possible to dive into these databases and discover the best albums/songs/films/games from every angle.
What's the best French-language rock release with electronic influences? Greatest console RPG of the 00s set in space? These sites are designed with the goal of answering any question that can help you find something new to watch, play, or listen to.
If you aren't familiar with our work - we are the team behind rateyourmusic.com, the comprehensive music database and community. This project is about building and launching a vastly-improved version, as well as a film- and game-equivalent.
For those who already use Rate Your Music regularly, you will love these new sites. We've listened to your feedback and have been working on the most requested improvements, including the addition of 7 of the 10 most requested features.
The final step of launching the Sonemic network is building servers and infrastructure, contracting some non-development tasks, and committing to a final development cycle. This last phase requires a considerable amount of money to put everything into place, and we need your help! Please consider being a part of our launch by giving in this campaign.
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Sonemic is the next version of Rate Your Music, and incorporates over 200 improvements requested by members.
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Cinemos takes the "film beta" from RYM and expands it into a full-featured site with the same improvements found in Sonemic.
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Glitchwave is a brand new site focused on building a comprehensive video game database.
These sites are free to use! We offer a few extra features to users who support the site on a monthly or annual basis. We call this benefit "Sonemic+". Check out the FAQ at the end of this page for more information.
What's new?
Here's a short list of some of the new features available in these sites:
A new design including vastly-improved mobile support.
A new search engine that searches as you type, and that produces instant and more relevant results.
A redesigned charts feature with options for filtering by language, secondary genre, number of ratings and much more!
A new cataloging system for much-improved filtering, sorting, searching, editing and cataloging of your collections.
New song-related features: "top tracks" on artist pages, genre voting for tracks, and song charts!
New genre browsing and genre pages with sorting, searching, and filtering.
New label pages with sorting, searching, and filtering.
A brand new, completely redesigned
lists feature with easier editing and tons of new features.
Brand new community page and message boards, including a new section for featured content of all types which is selected by users.
New messaging system with real-time chat and notifications.
New profile pages with more customization.
New Sonemic+ subscription features.
New, cleaner and faster way to manage your profile and site settings.
New community options: follower/following, ability to block users, profile privacy.
A beta-version of our API with three endpoints: Search, collection, and lists.
Improvements to classical music support.
New community content system that provides transparency on unpublished reviews and shows actions taken based on violating community rules.
Redesigned recommendations and compatibility lists.
Redesigned notification feed, including new notifications, the ability to perform some actions directly within the feed.
A much-improved new releases feature that incorporates the old "upcoming" section.
And much, much more!
Perks
For the first time in RYM's history, we have merchandise! We have commissioned three great logos for the new sites, designed by Aiste and her team at the
TieATie design agency. For this campaign, we will be giving out T-shirts, stickers, buttons, and other goodies. Some perks also provide early access to the Glitchwave beta test, and others offer Sonemic+, which provides some extra site features.
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Also offered is a limited-edition retro RYM t-shirt which will only be sold as part of this campaign!
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Accelerating the push to launch
We are already nearly completed with these projects - 75% of the features are implemented and working. However, making that final push towards completion has been difficult. We are only two developers, and having to maintain and support one site while building another site is incredibly difficult.
The purpose of this fundraiser is to provide the final pieces of the project required for launch: New servers, cloud services, and contracting. With new servers in place, the existing site (rateyourmusic.com) will be faster and more reliable, which means we can focus nearly 100% of our time on development. The funds will be spent as follows:
Servers - Our servers are aging and very much in need of an upgrade. We plan to spend the majority of the funds to build a modern, reliable server infrastructure that will last us for years to come.
Cloud services and CDNs - One major goal of the new Sonemic network is increased reliability and speed. A large part of that is using cloud services: server monitoring, error reporting, virtual private servers, content delivery networks, spam prevention APIs, and similar services.
We also want RYM to be faster in every part of the world. We have a plan to accomplish this by using advanced CDNs that not only serve images, but other important data.
Contracting - Some of the final touches to the Sonemic network involve tasks that we would like to contract to other firms specialized to those tasks. For example, we have a pile of design work that needs to be finished. Although we can do much of this ourselves, it would be much faster and more cost-efficient to have a design firm do this. We're already working with some firms, such as TieATie, who developed our new logos.
Risks & Challenges
Because the goal of this fundraiser is to greatly accelerate the launch of Sonemic, Glitchwave, and Cinemos - the biggest challenge is making our deadline of April 2016.
A successful Indiegogo campaign will give us more support in developing RYM than we have ever received before. Having new servers in place will free up an enormous amount of development resources. With funds for contracting, we'll finally be able to quickly knock out many tasks that have been hindering us for over a year
We are confident that with these additional resources, we will be able to achieve our goal of three polished, high-quality, fully-functional sites by our stated deadline.
Stretch goals
Other Ways You Can Help
Please help us spread the word about this campaign! Share this page on Facebook, on Twitter, tell your friends - anything you can do to help is appreciated!
Your feedback is greatly appreciated - if you have any thoughts about the project or about this campaign, please let us know!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is going to happen to rateyourmusic.com?
Sonemic is the next version of rateyourmusic.com. It's essentially the same site, but with a new name, logo, design, and tons of new features.
What is going to happen to all of my ratings/reviews/lists/posts/etc.?
Don't worry! All of your data will be transferred to the Sonemic network.
Your data from rateyourmusic.com will be preserved and will exist on sonemic.com.
Your film ratings, reviews, and other data will be preserved and will exist on cinemos.com.
How does interaction between the three sites work?
Sonemic, Cinemos, and Glitchwave are seamlessly integrated - so much so, that you will probably forget that you're using three different sites. Logging in to one site in the Sonemic network will login to all sites, and much of the interface (such as site settings, your messaging inbox, etc) will be unified.
Can I opt out of being part of the sites that don't interest me?
Yes - in site settings, there is an option to enable your "music profile," "film profile," and "game profile." You can choose which ones you want to enable/disable, to ensure you're only part of the sites that interest you.
What is Sonemic+?
All sites in the Sonemic network are free to use. However, we offer a few extra features to users who donate to the site on a monthly or annual basis. Some perks in this campaign include access to Sonemic+ for 6, 12, or 18 months.
Does Sonemic+ apply to all three sites?
Yes - the benefits of Sonemic+ apply to sonemic.com, cinemos.com and glitchwave.com!
What are the extra features offered in Sonemic+?
You can see a tentative list here.
If I choose a perk that includes more than one T-shirt, which shirts can I choose?
You can choose any combination of (design, M/F, size) that you like, including identical shirts.
Will there be some type of special indicator on my profile that I am a financial supporter of Sonemic?
Yes! We haven't worked out the details, but we will surely add something to your profile that will indicate that you are a supporter (with the option to disable it if you don't like standing out).
I donated in the 2008 fundraiser, and thus have a permanent subscription to RYM. Will that subscription transfer over to Sonemic?
Yes; however, old permanent subscriptions will only apply to Sonemic (not to Cinemos/Glitchwave), and will not include the "unlimited namechange" feature of Sonemic+.
What is the "special username" mentioned in the Everything perk?
If you donate at the "Everything" level or higher, you will have access to one special name change. You can either choose a one- or two-letter username, or you can take over the username of an abandoned account. If you take an abandoned username, the user must have been inactive for seven years, and the profile has to be essentially empty (no/few ratings/reviews/etc).
I want as much money as possible to go toward the project. Can I forgo the perks associated with my contribution?
Indiegogo has an "additional gift" option that allows you to contribute any amount you like for any perk. So you can always pick the $1 perk (or some small perk) and then choose an "additional gift" on the following page.
Is there anything else I can do to help, other than donating?
Absolutely! Please consider posting this campaign to your Facebook or Twitter, or plugging us in any other medium in which you have friends or followers. Please consider non-spammy ways to get this campaign mentioned on larger websites or magazines. Please like us on Facebook/Twitter (links below). Please tell your friends. Anything you can do will help!
