'The site, Hypetrak, has 17.000-19.000 Absolute Unique Visitors and up to 80,000 page views a day' - Petar Kujundzic. Maria Karrar: It was a Thursday night, the weather was nice and I was enjoying my one-month trip in Germany. After a long day trying to convince my cousin to visit Tha Dogg Pound concert, she finally decided to come along with me. Who would have thought I would meet Petar Kujundzic at Mono Bar, in Stuttgart of all places. After talking with him for about five minutes at the concert, he showed me his mobile, opened a website and asked me: “do you know this website?”
The website he was talking about, is Hypetrak. Afterwards he told me that I was the first person he actually met that knew Hypetrak. I was surprised, not knowing that the people in Europe don’t have an idea of the existence of this website. So, after having a long and good conversation with him about the music industry, I realized that I wanted to do a small interview with him about Hypetrak. By now everyone is aware of the fact that the amount of web magazines, focused on hip-hop, is unbelievably high. All these websites are practically having a battle of who put’s which video first. I’m interested in how Hypetrak thinks to diversify itself from other websites.
Petar, could you shortly introduce yourself? Who are you and what is it exactly that you do for Hypetrak and how did you get there? P: My name is Petar Kujundzic and I run Hypebeast’s official music element – Hypetrak.com. I oversee the editorial content of the website – which encompasses music content, interviews, writing style, imagery – and I also take care of Hypetrak’s social network presence.
I first approached Kevin Ma (owner of Hypebeast) approximately two years ago, sending a regular job application to write some articles about current music news for the first Hypetrak. I was glad that I received response – which I did not expect. However, in order to prove my dedication and taste of music, I first had to send over a few links a day. I did this for a few weeks when I first got invited to send in some minor articles. I was freaked out when I first saw my name on the Hypetrak-screen. Just a few days before I thought I’d be an official part of the team, HT 1.0 went offline because of different reasons. I was sort of disappointed because I felt that the site had so much potential. However, Kevin and me agreed to say in touch for whenever HT might get relaunched. Luckily, he hollered at me a few months after (November 2009) and asked me if I’d like to work full-time for him building a new Hypetrak.com. The rest is pretty much history and a lot of work.
Is it a fulltime job? It sure is. My friends get jealous of me since I’m making a living out of my hobby. Running an international music site sure can be fun job, but like I mentioned earlier, it is lots work and lots of responsibility. Since my working day depends on the arrival of news it is somewhat harder to maintain a structure in daily life. Like I start my regular working days in the morning, work 3-4 hours, have a short break, then get back to the computer for another few hours, then get grab some dinner, see a few friends and then get back online till open end. Work on the weekend is mandatory too. This (online) industry is very demanding, always evolving which means you have to be on your toes every day and be on the lookout for the next big thing. There can’t be enough work on a day. Currently, I’m living in Germany but I’m planning a move to Hong Kong (since Hypebeast’s headquarters are located there). Thus, I can work more closely with the technical team.
Who’s working with you? I’m working closely with Hypebeast’s Hong Kong offices (programmer, marketing etc.). As far as editorial content is concerned, Davis Huynh, who is our veteran blogger. He is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, but now resides in Brooklyn. We also have Matt Morris on board, who just graduated from college and is now working for a major record label in Los Angeles.
How many visitors does Hypetrak have everyday? The site has 17.000-19.000 Absolute Unique Visitors and up to 80,000 page views a day. Around 60%s of our readers comes from the U.S. but we also have daily readers from every single European country, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia all the way to New Zealand.
Hypetrak is well known for it’s quick content. Where do you get the content from for the site? That depends. We use Google Reader to outsource the information relevant for our site. We go on a day-to-day. We have different inflow of information. It could be through other blogs, other websites. We also receive tons of music submissions from independent artists every day. So we try to cover as many dope independent artists that deserve some serious shine as possible. However, due to the immense inflow to new music, we are currently working on ways on how to promote them more properly.
What is your top 3 Hypetrak articles/interviews? That’s a tough one (laughs). Since we put out 20-25 posts per day it is hard to come up with the top 3 because we really try to represent our (Davis Hunyh, Matt Morris and myself) music taste the best way possible. But if I would have to name my favorite Hypetrak-post so far, I’d have to say: all time favorite post would be “Dilla Joints” by The Roots.
The Roots – Dilla Joints by Hypetrak Earlier you mentioned Hypebeast. Could you explain to our readers the connection between Hypetrak and Hypebeast? What is the relationship with Hypebeast? Although Hypetrak is Hypebeast’s sister site, we actually try to separate these two sites from one another as much as possible. Sure, sometimes we swap/exchange articles (laughs) but that’s pretty much about it. However, HB and HT have the same programming and marketing team.
How does the future look like for Hypetrak? We are currently expanding the site. I don’t want to give away too much but let’s say things will get more interactive between the editorial team (Davis Hunyh, Matt Morris and myself) and the readers. We are also working on ideas to facilitate the music submission for independent artists. Other than that, expect more full-fledged features, more Hypetrak.TV-episodes and much more regular content in the next months.
Which artist would you tip as the future? There are too many to name. Seriously. But if you would ask me what artist I am enjoying the most right now, I’d have to say Blu and TOKiMonsta.
How do you think Hypetrak will be remembered in Music? It is hard to foresee what the future has in store since the Internet is constantly developing. I hope that people will consider (not remember) us as a reliable site when it comes to various genres of contemporary music – a digital place where internet - savvy music fans feel at home.
Curious about Hypetrak? Visit the website and don't be shy to like their Facebook page!
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