See What You've Been Missing
With the newsletter on hiatus this week, First Floor is offering a quick peek behind the paywall—and a special deal for those that never want to see a paywall again.
Hello everyone. As mentioned in the most recent newsletter, I’m on vacation this week, but I didn’t want to leave First Floor readers completely hanging while I take some time away from my laptop.
I’ve shared a few goodies below to help keep you occupied, but before we get to that, I’m hoping we can have a little chat. If you’re receiving this, you’re one of the many readers who’s currently not signed up for a paid subscription, and that means you don’t have access to First Floor’s extensive repository of interviews, essays and other long-form content. Look, I know paywalls are annoying, life is expensive and we’re all suffering from subscription fatigue. But paid subscriptions are also what keep this whole operation running, and approximately 95% of the First Floor audience doesn’t have one. I’d like to see that number improve, and have put together a special discount that I’m hoping will entice you to finally pull the trigger.
This offer is only available through this Sunday, April 20, so act fast if you’d like to receive full access to all First Floor content—including the complete archive—for just €4 per month. Annual subscriptions are an even better deal, and cost just €40.
Either way, that’s literally less than €1 per week.
What’s that? You need some additional incentives? Okay then. In the spirit of showing folks what they’re missing, I’ve temporarily lifted the paywall on three recent First Floor artist interviews, all of which were immensely popular when they were published earlier in the year. If you missed them the first time around, now’s your chance to get caught up, absolutely free:
Ploy’s new record for Dekmantel is drawing rave reviews, and First Floor is pretty much the only outlet that’s actually sat down with the UK producer to find out exactly how he went from making topsy-turvy bass music anthems to loopy, big-room-ready bongo house.
Barker’s Stochastic Drift is already shaping up to be one of 2025’s most celebrated electronic albums, and right after it was initially announced, the Berlin-based producer talked to First Floor about the tumultuous years in which the LP was created. He also shared some frank thoughts about the current state of the industry, and how he’s nonetheless working to stay inspired and unlock new forms of creativity.
Prior to speaking with First Floor, Voice Actor had never before given a press interview, but she proved remarkably open about her much-lauded ambient / experimental project, explaining its genesis and evolution, along with her decision to debut the project back in 2022 with a a sprawling, digital-only, 110-track debut album that ran for more than four hours.
All three of those interviews will be available to the public—for free—through the end of the week. Give them a read, and if you like what you see, and would like First Floor to be able to continue having in-depth, long-form conversations with these kinds of artists, then please consider signing up for a paid subscription to the newsletter.
In case you’re wondering, First Floor is a 100% independent operation, and unlike most other music publications, it has no advertisements, no sponsored content and no brand partnerships. I want to keep it that way. The vast majority of revenue comes from paid subscriptions, and although the growth of the newsletter has drastically increased my workload over the years, First Floor is still a solo operation. There’s no support team—it’s just me, and if you appreciate what I’m doing, I could really use your help.
Not convinced yet? Consider these two things:
Do you hate paywalls? Of course you do, and getting a paid subscription is the easiest way to ensure that you’ll never see one on First Floor again! Even better, you’ll be given early and unlimited access to every new essay, interview and long-form article that gets published. While free subscribers are stuck scrambling to read those pieces within the brief 24-hour window that they’re made available to the general public, you’ll be able to check them out at your leisure.
If you’re a DJ, producer, promoter, booker, label owner, journalist, publicist or music / culture professional of any kind (hello creative agency employees!), your paid subscription is most likely something you can claim as a business expense and a tax write-off. And if you work for a company in the music / culture industries, why not get your boss to pay for the subscription instead? (They can probably write it off too.)
One last time, here’s that subscription button—make sure to click it before April 20.
Okay, that’s the end of my spiel. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading First Floor. Regardless of whether or not you opt for a paid subscription, I appreciate your time and attention, and given the absolute flood of content that’s available these days, the fact that you intentionally signed up to get this newsletter blasted into your inbox every week means a lot. Truly.
First Floor will be back to normal next week. Take care of yourself until then.
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Instagram—and make sure to follow First Floor on Instagram as well—or you can just drop Shawn an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.