The Annual Begging Letter

Well, no that's not strictly true. Never a begging letter since I have carried on regardless with no heed to the cost of maintaining this site. Late August each year does however see the annual subscription to WeTransfer called in. WeTransfer is not the cheapest platform (€228/£193 for 12 months subscription). However, it is stable and reliable, unlike some earlier file sharing platforms that I used in the earlier days of the site. This annual fee also gives me unlimited capacity these days.

The focus of the site is and always will be The Stranglers and here I endeavour to post old and new bootlegs, as well as articles and reviews from the UK music press of the day. Of course, it is necessary to branch out occasionally and post stuff that is beyond the MIB, however, when I do so I always have in mind the common interests of visitors to the Aural Sculptors site. Take a look though at the breakdown of posts and it is evident that the music and activities of The Stranglers and its individual members, both past and present represent to majority of material on here. I also want to add, as I have mentioned in the past when accusations have been leveled at me that I am deviating from The Stranglers theme, that to focus solely on one band would be the quickest way to erode my interest in maintaining the site. 

As always, my heartfelt thanks are due to those people you actively engage in the site and contribute with recordings, material and comments (and here I appreciate that the blogger platform is not the easiest when it comes to commenting on posts). These people as much as me are responsible for keeping this site active and hopefully engaging.

For my part, I am still very happy to dig out interesting stuff for like minded people to listen to or read (as I share these interests). I also like the idea that the name of the site gets shared on social media sites when Stranglers' fans mention their bootleg purchases from sites like eBay... chances are the same recordings (if not the exact same recordings!) are available on here for nothing.

I am never comfortable dwelling on the financial aspects of keeping the site going, but it becomes increasingly apparent that a lack of funds is the reason why some prominent sites are closing down despite the fact that those same sites remain very active right upto the point where the plug is pulled. Aural Sculptors typically has between 600 to 1000 visits a day which is quite a lot for a niche site I think.

Should you feel the inclination to contribute something to cover the WeTransfer subscription there is a PalPal donation button in the right hand panel of the site (you need to scroll down quite a way (below band members) to locate it).

Thanks for your continued interest in and support of Aural Sculptors.

Cheers,

Adrian x.