Beloved readers of NBHAP,
do you know that feeling when you blink your eyes, take a look on your watch and suddenly realize: ‘Damn, how time flies?’ That’s exactly the thought we had once we suddenly realized we’ve been running NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION for more than six years now. Six years driven by enthusiasm, hard work, enjoyment and … well, a lot of passion. Six years in which we barely had any time off in order to take a look at this lovely digital space we built for you and us from the outside; to catch our breath and prepare ourselves where to go next. Well, until now …
Starting from July the 4th, 2016, NBHAP will slow down things drastically as we go on an extended summer hiatus for at least three months. There won’t be a lot of regular news, big features, interviews, weekly discoveries and reviews in those time and before you furiously run away, please give us a few moments of your time to explain our decision.
1. Sometimes you just need to catch your breath …
Like we said earlier: We’ve been constantly building up NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION for over six years with changing personal and setting. We barely had any time off during those six years, especially the ones who are running this little adventure. In the world of music and art pretty much every artist got the right to vanish for a certain time, to make themselves scarce and re-think ideas before coming back in stronger form. It’s kind of weird, that this is a ‘no-go’ in the accelerated media landscape. It’s all about clicks, visitors and who’s the fastest with the exclusive news; a fateful equation we always struggled with. And maybe it needed six years to finally step out of that vicious circle and detach ourselves from the rules… at least for a bit. It’s also good for your personal health, trust us.
2. There’s an economic side to it
There’s still a way too large number of people who think you can get quite wealthy with whatever we are doing here. Well, that couldn’t be further away from the truth. We’re not close to a comfortable position and especially music blogging is a precarious business. We’re still running NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION beside our regular jobs, we can’t make a proper living out of it yet and the name still remains our main credo.
We’re driven by hope and passion and are therefore ‘forced’ to find other income sources and set economic priorities.
And that’s why NBHAP has to run low every now and then and won’t work the same way like a big media outlet. But, please, don’t pity us. We’re actually doing fine and way better than in the past. We’re not begging you for any money … we just want you to understand the situation and keep it in mind when you’re reading this page.
3. Time for some adjustment
Like we said earlier: artists need their time to re-evaluate their art, gather new strength and find fresh creative ideas to keep the spark alive. And a media platform needs that as well, especially in times like these. The way we consume music, information and other forms of entertainment change almost on a monthly basis. The world is a different place than it was six years ago. And as you know not everything turned out to be better.
NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION will use this summer hiatus to re-think existing structures, adjust them and maybe also get rid of a few things we don’t need anymore in the future.
Aside from hope and passion it’s also about – believe it or not – fun and, of course, also plausibility. We want to find a way to guarantee those aspects in the future as well and keep NBHAP an exciting place for all music lovers in the future as well so please give us a bit time to work on those things.
4. Finally: we’re not entirely gone
Don’t worry, folks. You can’t keep us two to three months off the internet. It’s festival season after all and of course, NBHAP will show up at a few of those and there might be also stuff happening on the homepage every now and then. But we’ll mainly be reporting new and interesting stuff over at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. So, if you didn’t follow us so far, please do so immediately. And don’t forget to do the same on our constantly growing Spotify profile. We’ll frequently update the playlists here over the next weeks with old favourites and brand new discoveries. So, you can’t get rid of us that easy.
And when will we be back in full glory? Well, we will see. We might return in full but different shape sooner or later. And maybe you can also follow our example a bit over the next weeks.
Enjoy the summer, live a life outside of the World Wide Web, get to know the world and people around you a bit better and on a personal level.
Maybe you can adjust your life a bit as well, rethink a few things and just catch your breath from time to time. You won’t regret it. We’ll see you on the other side.
Yours faithfully,
Norman on behalf of the NBHAP-team
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