Hello dear Gothtronic readers,

This announcement probably comes unexpected, but let me get straight at it: at 1 september 2010 all activities of Gothtronic will stop.

Gothtronic has been build-up since 2003 with the support and help of many people. Probably people like yourself who devoted a big part of their free time to promote the rich spectrum of dark music styles. Among them were promoters, DJ's, reviewers, photographers and many supportive visitors of parties and concerts.

Because of that Gothtronic has earned a certain status, nationwide and internationally, as active webzine portal. In this process I have been the main force and instigator of all activities as promoter, booker, manager and chief-editor. I have enjoyed doing this all those years and therefore it isn’t easy to make the decision to cease all activities with Gothtronic.

There are a couple of important arguments why Gothtronic will stop its activities and I think our readers have the right to know why we stop:

First, and this is also the most important reason to call it quits, are changing activities and choices in my private life. Three years ago i stopped organizing parties and DJing, and shortly after that also put the booking agency on hiatus to be able to have more time to relax beside the busy work schedule of myself and my partner. Now it is time to again make choices in life.

With that a couple more reasons play an important role in my motivation to stop with Gothtronic, and these are:

- The music business is in crisis, more and more promotion is done with MP3, creating an unbalance between effort and reward for my crew members.
- The gothic scene is dying and I don’t see it revive in the near future. I could make the choice to start an agenzy and portal with a new concept, but this is not why I became involved in the first place.
- No matter how much time and energy is invested by my crewmembers, an increasing part of the workload has come to rest on my shoulders to keep the site going. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find crewmembers that can contribute sufficiently and on a regular basis. These people are still there but the number is diminishing, also because people make choices in life and stop being active as reviewer.
- The number of editors and reviewers has become too small to be able to keep up the amount and quality of actual content which has made the Gothtronic webzine successful.
- There is no one that is able to continue the portal in the way it has been operating all these years, with the supporting network of contacts and devotion of time and energy. Add to that I won’t allow it to continue with a loss in quality to finally slowly fade away in oblivion. This would be an insult to the crew that has worked so hard all these years to keep up the level of quality and amount of content. In this situation the best option is to stop the entire project.
- The Gothicfest at 30 july 2010 in Steenwijk, The Netherlands, featuring Skinny Puppy, Das Ich, Mindless Faith, Dismantled, Destroid, Angelspit and many others of my favourite industrial EBM bands is a good moment to stop with a final party in which Gothtronic is actively involved in organising and promoting.

So, what can the reader expect?
- Starting 1 september 2010 the Gothtronic website will no longer be updated. The summer festivals will of course be reviewed and uploaded before this date.
- Starting 1 november 2010 the Gothtronic website will go offline definitive.
- Until 1 september 2010 the Gothtronic website will continue to be updated with the latest news, reviews and concert reports. We will also do several banner support campaigns for various festivals and releases in the coming months.

Thank you all for reading this webzine portal. It was fun to be had while it lasted!

Best regards,
Miguel (DJ TekNoir)