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Standards & Corrections

What we promise readers about every story, and a public record of every time we got something wrong.

Sourcing

Every factual claim links to a public source, listed at the foot of the story with the date we opened it. News facts are confirmed in at least two reliable, independent sources, and dates, prices and credits are checked against the primary source: the label, studio, maker, award body or official listing. When reliable sources disagree, we leave the claim out until it's settled. We don't run rumors, leaks or "reportedly" stories.

Other publications covering the same beat are useful leads, but we never count them as one of our sources. We go to the original instead.

Fact-checking

Before a story runs, a separate fact-check pass re-opens every source and checks the story sentence by sentence. After publication, every piece is audited again against our written standards, and anything that fails comes down until it's fixed.

Labels: news, analysis, opinion

Every story carries a label: News, Analysis, Guide, Profile, Opinion, Review or Ranked. News, guides and analysis report what is documented and don't editorialize. Opinion runs as The Take, reviews as The Verdict and rankings as the Cue Sheet; each one is approved by the Editor-in-Chief before it runs. Reviews come only from a named critic's own listening.

Quotes, images and credit

We don't invent quotes, interviews, specs, prices or credits. Direct quotes are short, attributed and linked; everything else is in our own words. We don't publish posters, film stills, album art or product photos. Photos of people run only with written permission or a clear license, credited on the page.

Prices and living pages

Every price says when we checked it and links to the maker or retailer. Pages we keep current, like Drop Watch and Plugin Haul, show their "Updated" date.

People

We cover people's work, not their private lives: public professional information only, no gossip, and no speculation about health, relationships or legal matters. We're hardest on the powerful and fairest to people starting out.

Independence

No affiliate links and no sponsored posts. We aren't affiliated with any studio, label, publisher, rights organization or other publication.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix it in the story and add a dated note saying what changed. We never quietly rewrite a fact. Every correction is listed here, newest first.

Spotted an error? Write to [email protected] with the story link and the source that shows it.