Howdy everyone!
It’s that time again — here are all the details for this year’s mid-year lists:
For reference, check out the lists from 2020:
TIMELINE ⏳
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Voting [November 22-29]: Vote for your 10 favorite albums and 10 favorite songs released between November 23rd, 2020 and now. Albums/songs released after November 29th will be considered in the ranking stage.
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Ranking & Blurb Sign-Up [November 29-December 6]: Discuss songs/albums lists until finalized, sign up to write blurbs
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Writing [December 6-13]: Submit blurbs, and address rolling revisions
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Final Edits [December 13-20]: Final staff review
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Publishing [December 22-23]: Lists go live
VOTING 🗳️
November 22 – November 29
Vote for the best releases of the year! The results of this initial vote will not reflect the final list — the purpose of this voting round is to get a sense of what the broader Genius community thinks are the best songs/albums, and then the ranking stage (see below) is where we will discuss and refine the lists to make them better. This year, you can vote for 10 albums and 10 songs.
We will have the top 20 albums and top 20 songs “locked in” by December 6th—position-wise, we may still make some updates, but these are the albums that we expect to make the final list.
Voting Rules:
- Anyone can vote
- You must vote for at least one album and one song, but you can vote for up to 10 of each
- You cannot vote for the same song/album more than once — attempting to do so will disqualify your vote
- November 23rd was our cutoff for the end of year 2020 lists, meaning that anything that came out from then onwards is fair game
- Enter your real Genius username (Not your display name) on the form. If the username you put on the form doesn’t match up with your Genius username, your vote will be disqualified
- Try to resist the urge to vote for your FAVORITE songs and albums, and instead try to decide what the objectively BEST songs and albums
RANKING 📊
November 29 – December 6
Discuss, deliberate, and ultimately decide what our final lists will look like! Ranking will take place on a song page, so changes will be determined by the opinion in the form of annotating, upvoting, and discussion—that means you need to get in there and share your thoughts if you want the list to change! We will regularly update the lists on the song page according to popular opinion until we come to a consensus. Updates will be posted in this thread as major list revisions are made.
In this period, you’ll also be able to fill out a form letting us know up to five albums and five songs you would be willing to write about. We’ll review the sign-ups, assign writers, and announce them here. This means you might not get to write about the releases you want to write about, but we’ll do our best to make sure everyone who wants to write gets to write something.
Only the top 25 songs and albums will receive write-ups
Rules:
- Must hold Editor or Moderator role to write blurbs
- Although you can submit up to 10 songs and 10 albums you would be willing to write about, our initial limit is 2 albums and 2 songs per person. This may change depending on interest.
- Only sign up to write blurbs if you can commit to getting them in by December 13. If you get assigned a blurb and you don’t submit it by December 13, someone else will write it. Songs or albums that are assigned late will be given an extended writing period
- Users who frequently submit articles to the editorial site will get “first dibs” in the assigning phase
WRITING & REVISIONS 🖊️
December 6 – December 13
Blurb assignments will be announced between December 6-10. As soon as we let you know the blurbs you’re writing, you can get started and submit them on the doc below when they’re done.
(links coming December 7)
- 150 word limit for albums, 100 word limit for songs
- Blurbs are due December 13
- Revisions will be rolling, so check the doc often
- It’s your responsibility to address revisions in a timely fashion. If you don’t address the comments and suggestions before the final edits phrase, you’ll lose the chance to have discussion and input.
- Don’t simply reject revisions if you don’t like them. If you don’t agree with a revision or understand why it was proposed, leave a comment and ask questions to get a dialogue started with the staffer who proposed it.
- If you would like a name other than your Genius username (username, not display name) to appear in the published article, please add it to the submission doc in addition to your username.
FINAL EDITS & PUBLISHING 🎉
December 13 – December 20
Once we enter this stage, the Knowledge and Community teams will make final revisions to your blurbs. We’ll do our best to take everyone’s opinions and feels into consideration, but Genius' editorial staff may make changes to ranking and blurbs prior to publishing. We’ll communicate with you if we need to make any substantial revisions, but if your blurb is submitted late, you don’t make edits in a timely manner, or do not communicate in a timely manner, Staff will make the changes needed to complete the editing process.
The Genius Community’s 50 Best Albums of 2021 will publish on December 22!
The Genius Community’s 50 Best Songs of 2021 will publish on December 23!
Let us know if you have any questions/concerns!
@genius-editorial-board @genius-updates
