State of the Music Magazine (2008)

Maybe you`ve noticed the mag getting thinner and thinner. I used to save all my mags until I realized most publishers put past issues on the internet after a month or so. Having saved so many mags for so long, gave me the visual to notice how much mags have slimmed down over the last 10 years. Honestly, I`m not sure how mags still sell with the internet but they must be because there are plenty to choose from. Anyway, I have subscriptions to mix, eq, em and tape op. Tape op is free and imo, its the best one because it reminds me of what eq used to be which back 15 years ago kicked ass with an emphasis on the people behind the gear!

I also don`t read mag reviews anymore because I can access that information from real users who don`t have to worry about pissing off a manufacturer so the internet reviews are a lot more honest.

What is your opinion about music mags in `08?

And finally: Rate your Top 5...

1 Tape Op

2 EQ

3 ReMix

4 EM

5 Performing Songwriter

As a writer, I'm constantly getting direction from the editors to keep my articles and reviews under 1500 words. There isn't isn't much you can say about anything worth writing about with that short of an article without being very finely focused. It's good practice, though.

When I first started to write for Recording, I told the editor that I thought that too many magazine articles were too short and didn't tell enough of the story to be of much direct value to the reader. Since I was writing a monthly column, I had the freedom to split an article over two or three issues. The last one I did like that, the first part was published in October 2007, the second part is still in the can.

The trouble with user reviews that you can get from web sites and forums is that you don't often get a very broad picture of what a product can do, you either get a first impression or a good description of what the writer is doing with it, which may or may not be relevant to you.

I think Sound on Sound has some of the best reviews. I always pick up copies that they give away at trade shows, but since a subscription in the US is pretty expensive and I get more than all the magazines for free than I can read in a month, I'm not a regular subscriber.

I pretty much read Pro Audio Review and Recording from cover to cover because those are magazines I write for often enough so that I want to keep track of what they're publishing and how the style is evolving. I tend to skip over articles about famous artists and film/video production because I'm just not intersted. I keep wanting to like Tape Op more, but there's just so much in there that doesn't apply to me or interest me. I do like the "man behind the gear" series. I've finally managed to stop geting ReMix.

1. TapeOp

2. EQ

3. SOS

4. Recording

5. Electronic Musician

I don't like anything but Tape Op. Everything else is chock full of ads. I got a couple issues of Recording free, and dude... the letters sent in? 2 of them were answered.

Compare to Tape Op, you get PAGES of letters answered by people throughout the industry.

There was a time when I was subscribed to EM, EQ, Mix, Keyboard, Guitar Player and, briefly, whatever they called Recording before. (Home & Studio Recording?)

But the articles seemed to dumb down even as the price tags on some of the gear reviewed went up; I dropped the subscriptions one at a time until all I had was Tape Op and then I let that lapse. (Though I just signed up for it again.)

It's not that I thought the mags were a wasteland -- but I was deeply turned off by the move to personality/celebrity oriented articles. (At least the 'celebs' in TapeOp are recording/engineering legends, for the most part.) I remember dropping my EQ subscription many years ago when they put the lavish personal studio of Scott Weiland on the cover. I was surprised there wasn't an interview with his interior decorator in the article -- there was certainly almost no meaninful recording/gear content. (In fairness, I have not even seen a copy since Craig went onboard and I'm sure the magazine is a lot better now.)

I had a soft spot for EM but it really slid and now there are new owners -- things didn't look like they were headed in a felicitous direction. I let my 'scrip go in mid-year.

With regard to gear reviews, as bad as many mag reviews are, they're still usually better than the buzz and nonsense on audio BBs. There was a time when audio/recording BBs had a lot of knowledgeable people on them but upheaval in recording has brought in very large numbers of folks with plenty of opinions and an endless hunger for -- and desire to pass along -- buzz, but who have little or no grasp of recording and technical fundamentals and little ability to analyze things logically.

When I first saw this thread, I thought it was about music mags like Spin, NME, etc... which I pretty much stopped reading in the 80s when I realized that even I was deeper than the goofball trendies and wannabes who end up writing most pop crit.

2-4 in no particular order.

Sigh...

Ads are good. Ads let the magazines continue to exist. Tape Op has no more or less ads than anyone. Count the pages, count the ads, and see what I mean. Wishing for less ads in a magazine -- any magazine -- is wishing for the magazine's demise.

And I like Tape Op, and I like EQ, and I like Mix, and I like Sound On Sound, and I like Pro Sound News, and think that all of them serve specific purposes that the others don't.

Tape Op has more content bar none.

This is gonna seem really pedantic to many, but here goes. We all come from different experiences. For me, Remix does not speak to me in any meaningful way. The entire magazine is literally completely useless to me. However, to my friend at work, he reads it cover to cover. And like Mike Rivers, I kept getting this magazine even though I'd let the subscription lapse, contact them and bow out of the subscription, etc.

I relate most to TapeOp. I feel like most of them are like me, and write from that experience. I really like EQ now, and find it interesting, and read the thing just about from cover to cover. These are the two magazines I get that I read most completely.

You bet.

A magazine is not like TV where you have to sit through each advert (or at least find something else to do, as sane folks do -- thank heaven for mute). I don't necessarily read every ad in a mag, but I'm always happy to see a favorite magazine fat with ads because it's a sign of economic health, as a rule.

Yes.

Because I work with all of these magazines and have been a marketing weasel for many years, I'm aware of something called the "ad-to-edit ratio". As it sounds, this is the ratio of ads compared to the amount of editorial content in a magazine. Most magazines that serve the music creative community have a very similar ad-to-edit ratio. It's simple to see: open the magazine, count the ads, and count the pages of articles. Then do it with another magazine. Neat, huh?

If you see a magazine that is completely full of editorial content with very few ads, that is almost always a sign of a magazine that is not going to be around long (unless they just started out).

The thing that's most important to understand: in a small industry like ours, the magazines cannot be supported by subscription fees alone... not by a long shot. The ads are crucial to the magazine's survival. So, my advice is to not judge a magazine by the ads at all; look instead at the quality of the magazine's content.

The only magazine I subscribe to currently is Tape Op. In fact my frustration with the lack of reviews of affordable gear from lesser known companies in Guitar Player was one of the driving factors in starting FrugalGuitarist.com. I would really like to subscribe to the UK Guitarist or Guitar & Bass but the US subscriptions are so darn expensive.

Remix and EQ (and probably SOS and Recording, I don't remember) review affordable gear.

I still prefer reading paper to reading on the screen-its more portable, and especially for longer articles, much easier on my eyes.

Lately, I've been getting the most enjoyment out of Guitar Player and Premeir Guitar. I also read Tape Op, EQ, EM, and Mix and enjoy them roughly equally.

Lately I have shifted my interest back to playing guitar with a bit less interest in recording technology, which is why i'm getting into the guitar mags, after not reading them for many years. They also have the most visual appeal. Its hard to get excited about a screen shot of a DAW. Also, I have gotten beyond reading most of the articles covering the basics of recording.

TapeOp is very lively but I find their excessive retro/analog fetishism silly and a bit tediuous. I don't support the movement to un-democratize recording by making it de rigeuer to find and maintain vintage or boutique gear. (not that I am totally against using such gear)

I enjoy reading reviews, but it does seem that a lot of magazines are overly cautious about offending advertisers. However, there is a way to read between the lines sometimes. Also, I enjoy seeing adverts, at least the informative ones, to learn about new gear. I resent the adverts that use sexy models or lifestyle pictures to sell their product.

I don't completely trust online user reviews, although I do consistently check them out. Many times the user is too inexperienced to have a informed opinion, or they are just justifying their purchase to themselves. But if there are several reviews you can gleam a worthwhile consensus opinion.

I subscribed to EQ for a fairly long time but in the end prefered the global scope, historical perspective, and artistic design elements of Tape Op. As they both served the same general interest for me (being recording and production), I opted to let my EQ subscription expire. I've never seen Remix.

I want to subscribe to another guitar magazine but just haven't been impressed at all with the domestic offerings. Though I must say, the interviews with Hartley Peavey and Jim Elyea (JMI Vox history) in the current Premier Guitar were both great reads...

Looks like I'm probably going to be doing more regular writing for EQ again, so this thread is definitely of interest to me in terms of seeing what people like and don't like, and gleaning ideas about what to write about from that...

+1, except that it's Keyboard I'm going to be writing for again.

I used to be a magazine junkie, subscribing to about 20 magazines at one point. Now, I'm down to just five: Keyboard, Sound On Sound, EQ, Mix, and Virtual Instruments (although the existence of Virtual Instruments seems to be in limbo). Occasionally, an issue of Tape Op arrives at my doorstep; but they seem to be confused as to whether or not I'm a subscriber. So am I.

Best,

Geoff