Well, the world hasn't ended and the industry hasn't collapsed, so we're here to kick off another year of ABTS! We're planning on more guest posts, interviews with artists & industry folks, and of course our weekly topics. We're also planning on eating tons of pizza and actually telling you about it. Thanks for sticking with us and reading our (sometimes rant-filled) advice and opinions!

Not sure if you subscribe to the notion of resolutions, but we sure as hell hope you've been thinking about some goals for the year. We've given ourselves a hard deadline of January 31 to have all of ours together so that we can keep track throughout the year. If you're nerds like us, here are our tips for sticking to them:

• Print them out & post them in a very visible spot
• Make them incredibly tangible (none of "tour more" and more of "play 50 shows this year"). 
• Have check in points to see how you're doing
• Talk about them with your friends. Nothing is more motivating than having someone ask how you're coming along on something. 
• Be realistic. Don't set yourself up for failure. 

Ok - knowing all of that, here are my incredibly over the top, throws these rules out the window, super vague but still totally warranted, resolutions for the music industry at large:

1. Pay artists more fairly. After some analyzing, we're pretty disappointed in the rate per stream drop off for a lot of platforms -- namely one green giant. 
2. Down with the Patriarchy! Ok, for a less feminist-style rant, we'd like to see more women in positions of power -- and get better acknowledgment for their accomplishments. It's is no secret that women in this world can GET SOME SHIT DONE. Now, let's just let them do it.
3.  Less butt touching at shows. Unless asked for, let's all work to stop ourselves from the infamous concert-grope.
4. A more transparent touring industry. WHAT DO WE WANT? DATA! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW! 
5. Less hype, more talent. It's inevitable... but some of the things that are lifted up in this world are questionable at best. 
6. Less of the same shit. I get it when Billboard and NPR write about the same artists, but does every music blog have to follow suit? I KNOW, they need clicks... but honestly, it's just a lot of the same words repeated over and over. Give us the goods that don't get big press!
7. No meetings before 10AM. Just me?? 
8. Access to good health & mental care for artists! Not getting political... but this is a big problem. 
9. Cut out the con man. I fully support naming names when it comes to industry people hurting artists for personal gain (monetarily or otherwise).
10. Figure out what to do with Facebook. Can we just agree that this platform doesn't matter anymore so we stop giving them our ad money? OR can they just show our posts to the actual fans that care? I'm good with either.

Anything I left off? Let me know what you'd add in the comments! 

See ya next week, kids!