A Love Letter to the Future

Adios 2024, hello 2025!

---

As the decade known as 2024 has now bid us adieu, I want to thank each of you for making this such an enjoyable year here in our little corner of the internet. The current iteration of this project turned three this past fall, and every minute of it has been a joy!

Whether you’ve been here since Day 1, just recently showed up, or this is the first post of mine you’ve ever read, I’m glad you’re here. And if you’re up at 7 AM on New Year’s Day? That’s all the better.

This community continues to flourish beyond my wildest dreams and grow in new and exciting ways. Its success is due to support from readers like you. Thank you for making it what it is.

Thank you for sharing it on social media and with your friends and family. If you’re sharing it with your enemies, well, thanks for that, too. Over the past year, we’ve nearly doubled in size again, even after a couple of rounds of saying goodbye to cold subscribers.

Because of your recommendations, On Repeat is now read in 48 states (2024 resolution: Get North Dakota and Wyoming on board; 2025 resolution: Try again) and 71 countries worldwide. These missives land in inboxes as close as just down the block and as far away as New Zealand. That never ceases to amaze me and is incredibly humbling.

More importantly, it proves that there is an appetite for sharing the music we love with people, subverting algorithms, and indie music journalism. Those metrics are fun to discuss but wouldn't mean much without engagement.

What’s really exciting to watch are the orthogonal discussions in the comment sections and the stories you share directly with me. I appreciate the feedback, and love hearing the role certain records have played in your life. I read every one and try to respond as quickly as possible. That door is always open. Please use it.

---

I’m mindful that I ship often, so I wanted to share some of the year’s top posts in case you missed them. As a reminder, paid supporters have full access to the entire archive. That revenue is the fuel that keeps this project going. Your support, shares, and recommendations all make an immediate impact.

We don’t do ads, sponsored content, or affiliate links here. There is no media team or marketing, either. It’s just Gizmo and I spreading the word about good records (and warning you about bad ones).

On Repeat Records is—and will remain—100% reader-funded and community-driven.

Most Popular Posts from 2024 (as determined by you):

Wax Ecstatic: The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time Part #10
Van Halen's '1984' at 40
New Order's Technique at 35: A Quick Look at the Band's Seminal 1989 Record
Hot Takes On Cool Books
For The Record- 23. November. 2024

My Personal Favorites:

Van Halen's '1984' at 40
Oregon My Oregon: A Valentine's Day Card For The Beaver State
My Career as a Drummer Was Over Before It Began
Wax Ecstatic: The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time Part #1
The 2nd Annual On Repeat & Friends Top 10 Records of 2024

Separately, it took three tries, but John Phillips Souza and his Stars and Stripes Forever finally (!) received a little love this year. I’ll keep trying, lol. 

I also want to take a second to express my appreciation to every guest writer, collaborator, and co-conspirator from the past year. If you recognize yourself in that last sentence, thank you again for including me in your project and trusting me to deliver. For everyone else, I hope you had as much fun reading these as we did putting them together!

I want to give a special shout-out to

Jen Zug

and

S.W. Lauden

for their guidance, support, and editing help with this article and this one. Investing one's time in someone else’s work is a big ask, and I’m grateful to you both for that. Being able to pressure-test my writing was a gift. These both turned out infinitely better because of you. 

What’s next?

As always, one of my goals for the coming year is to increase the frequency of those collaborations. A few are already on the drawing board, and more are to come. Please let me know if you or someone you know has something you think would be a good fit! That’s intentionally in bold italics. I want to hear from you. Reply to this email, and we’ll get the ball rolling. 

There will also be a few giveaways, some exclusive offer for supporters, artist interviews, and other surprises that I hope people will enjoy.

This is a dynamic page and will continue to iterate & evolve, but at its heart, it is a community with music discovery and sharing music as its north star.

2024 was an incredibly meaningful year for On Repeat Records, and 2025 is looking bright. Thank you again for being a part of it.

---

Onward!

Kevin—

P.S. Speaking of Oregon, my beloved Ducks are in the Rose Bowl today. Maybe you're a fan, too? If so, reply to this via email with a pic of you in your favorite Ducks gear. The first to respond will get their subscription comped. Because I know there are a lot of subscribers in Ohio I’m a benevolent man, I’ll do the same for the first Buckeyes fan. Oregon State fans get charged double. I don’t make the rules.