Sputnikmusic

Sputnikmusic

Website type	Music website
Available in	English
Founded	2005; 21 years ago (2005)
Founder	Jeremy Ferwerda
Website	sputnikmusic.com

Sputnikmusic (often shortened to simply Sputnik) is a music website that publishes music reviews and news entries. The site hosts both professional and amateur content, covering metal, punk, indie, rock, hip-hop, pop and other styles. Its reviews are used by the review aggregate Metacritic.

Reception

Metacritic incorporates Sputnikmusic's staff reviews into its review aggregate ratings. The site was cited by The Guardian and Neil Daniels. Michael Miller wrote that "you're likely to fine [sic] a wide variety of opinions in the site". A Master's thesis utilized Sputnikmusic's music database for its research, due to its "focus on non-mainstream artists" and its "encompassing database". The ethnomusicologist Jorge Mercado Méndez references Sputnikmusic as an 'acclaimed' review source adjacent to Pitchfork, while musicologist Giuseppe Catani cites Sputnikmusic's Alex Robertson alongside the NME.

Stratification and rating systems

On Sputnikmusic, there are four levels of reviewers, which differentiate professional and amateur content:

• Staff Reviewers: these are the editors who contribute to the professional section by producing analyses and reviews. Their reviews are referenced on Metacritic.
• Contributors: These writers are recognized by the current Staff members as good enough writers to be featured. Nevertheless, they are not taken into account by Metacritic or Wikipedia.
• Emeritus: Status given to former Staff members who no longer contribute to the site. Their reviews are considered professional.
• User: This category includes all other people who are not listed at a higher level. They can add new reviews, artists and albums to the database, as well as edit and submit reviews or lists.

The Sputnikmusic notation system is based on a 5-point system, starting at 1.0 and ending at 5.0 in 0.5 steps. Each note is associated with a word, ranging from "Awful" for 1.0 to "Classic" for 5.0. Staff members are also allowed to score in 0.1 steps. Each album analysis shows the score given by the reviewer, but also the score given by the other reviewers on an associated page where an average is calculated from all the scores. A bar chart also shows the number of ratings each score has received for each album.

Album of the Year

References