The homepage for Sound of Boston, a recently established online music publication, provides a modern, professional introduction to the local Boston music scene. Featuring concert and album reviews, interviews with local artists and venue descriptions, the site explores the music culture of Boston. The publication, in fact, has a special connection to the university.
Sound of Boston was founded in the fall of 2013 by seniors Jonah Ollman and Knar Bedian, who shared a passion for music and the desire to increase awareness of Boston-based artists.
If someone wants to hear about shows, learn about the citys scene, or find new local music to hear, we want them to come to us, Ollman, editor-in-chief of the site, told the Daily in an email. We are hoping to make our site a one-stop shop for all things Boston music related.
According to Ollman, the pair wanted to create a comprehensive music site that featured wide-ranging content, from articles on where to find the most charismatic record shop to new videos from local bands. To raise the profiles of local bands and artists, the site includes a Local Spotlight section, in which readers can explore a range of local artists that otherwise may not be on their music radar.
The creation of Sound of Boston was rooted in Bedian and Ollmans previous work in different music scenes. Since his freshman year, Ollman has kept his own blog called Write to the Beat, which has garnered a significant following, even overseas. The founder of a site called Sound of Aarhus in Denmark contacted Ollman, and from there idea of the Boston music blog was formed.
One day last summer, after posting about a Danish artist, I got a message from the founder of Sound of Aarhus, a Danish local music website from a city I had actually visited about a year before while [I was] abroad, Ollman said. We got to talking, and we decided that I should start an equivalent site in Boston.
Meanwhile, Bedian, who acts as managing editor and photo editor for Sound of Boston, was working for Timbre, a concert finding app. The job required her to attend many local music shows: A few weeks later, Bedian and Ollman met at a concert and decided to start a Sound of Boston Tumblr site together.
I had the more visual and writing element, and he had a lot more of the exposure to the actual music industry, Bedian said. It was just a good combination of what you need.
We then slowly started writing reviews, worked on the site and got more and more people interested in contributing, Ollman said.
By advertising through TuftsLife and recruiting people from other nearby schools such as Boston University, Bedian and Ollman quickly pulled together a team of writers and editors to help maintain a steady flow of quality content onto the site, which now has a new post almost every day.
One such recruit is freshman Nitesh Gupta, the current local editor and main curator of the Local Spotlight section of Sound of Boston.
Each week Gupta, who is also the executive online editor for the Tufts Daily, attends concerts, writes subsequent reviews and edits other writers pieces. He also coordinates personal interviews with local artists who are happy to share their life stories a practice which has become one of Guptas favorite aspects of the blog.
Its really inspiring on a daily basis to talk to people who have been able to succeed in expressing themselves in a certain way, even if theyre not famous, Gupta said.
While sections like Local Spotlight have seen much growth, the Sound of Boston team is constantly working to improve the site, and Bedian and Ollman have many plans for future development. Currently, the site focuses on the indie rock genre, but is aiming to incorporate more music styles, like punk or rap, that will appeal to a broader array of music tastes, according to Bedian.
Another recent development for Sound of Boston is the new Neighborhood Sessions section where local artists are filmed and interviewed performing in small venues, according to Bedian.
Its hard to talk about [a groups] music without actually having an idea of what they sound like, Bedian said.
This new component will allow site visitors to watch artists tell their stories and give performances, while simultaneously including a review about the performer by a Sound of Boston writer, creating a comprehensive image of the artists and their unique style.
We are also putting out a downloadable mix, so that you can download the songs from any of the people that weve talked about before and see if you really like them, Bedian said.12
