JAMIE ROSS
CUP Atlantic Bureau Chief

FREDERICTON (CUP) — The Broken Speaker, a music blog run by Dalhousie University student Jon Briggins, recently earned the distinction as one of Canada’s top 10 best music websites in CBC’s Radio 3 Searchlight contest.

“I was pretty surprised to make the top 10 considering the quantity and quality of the websites that were nominated,” said Briggins, a 22-year-old from Halifax.

The Broken Speaker was initially among 120 vying for the top spot. From 120, a long list of 60 was declared, and that was further narrowed down to ten though several rounds of public voting.

Weird Canada, an Edmonton-based site, was the eventual winner.

Another Atlantic Canadian entry, musicnerd.com, also cracked the top ten. The top three best-voted sites were ranked, and the remaining seven got top 10 honours, with no specific ranking.

Briggins, an environmental science and international development student, said hits to his blog, which has been running since January 2010, doubled and on some days tripled during the course of the contest.

And though visits to the Broken Speaker have slowed since the contest closed, he said the experience has earned the site credibility, and he’s even considering pursuing studies in journalism thanks to his success and new-found love of writing.

“I’m considering applying to the King’s journalism program,” he said. “I didn’t really know I’d enjoy writing that much until I started up and saw people enjoyed reading it, and people were giving me feed back, fans and musicians themselves.”

Briggins, the site’s editor and main contributor, said he prefers to focus on Canadian and East coast music when reviewing show and albums.

“It’s not genre-focused,” he said. “More so on Canadian music. I don’t know if I’ve ever posted an American or British album review ”¦ as far as genres go, it’s kind of all over the place.”

The Best Music Website contest is the fourth time in as many years CBC Radio 3 has searched out the best of the Canadian music scene. Last year, Antigonish-based Evolve was voted best music festival, and previously, the contest has declared the best independent record store — Meow Records — and best live venue — Phog Lounge, Windsor, Ont.

The winners are all determined by fan votes.