A question about music magazines

First of all, I want to go on record again in stating my admiration and respect for all the folks involved with E-dition, which I think was a very good magazine and I only wish it had caught on more....

which brings me to my question(s). As someone who also has made an attempt to publish a hard copy magazine (from spring 1997 to fall 1999), and having witnessed the demise of others as well (e/i, Asterism, Dreams Word, Electroambient space - which is now successfully published on the web, and even New Age Voice to some degree) I would love to read as many opinions as possible about why a magazine devoted to EM, ambient, space, or new age simply cannot make it. There are successful magazines in semi-related genres, such as XLR8R, and magazines like The Wire that may feature some music, but it's hard to believe that no matter how good the magazine is (E-dition was very well done, as was e/i), it just never catches on.

For myself and Wind and Wire, I simply ran out of money. I was caught in the following paradox:

The only way I could increase circulation was to make the magazine "bigger and spashier" and start printing in full-color.

The only way I could increase revenue enough to make that happen was to get more ads from labels and artists.

The only way to raise more ad revenue was to increase circulation.

and now we're back to the top! (sigh)

Some questions to get you thinking, for example....

What would it take for you to support a magazine through subscribing (as a fan) or advertising (as an artist, label, etc.)? How large a circulation would it have to had? Full color necessary? How many pages? A narrow spectrum of music covered or a wide one? Non-music but related ads or articles okay? You see where I am headed here.

Or feel free simply to let me know why you think magazines are doomed from the get-go. Is it because we're so obsessed with the digital domain now and webzines are free? If that is the case, how frustrating is it that many webzines also go away? (the reason for the latter is, IMO, obvious...for those that don't know this, every webzine I have ever known of is done for free by volunteers as a labor of love, which means that any sane rational person eventually burns out after a few years, since it ceases to be fun any more...which means I passed "rational" a long time ago since I'm still volunteering my time to at least two sites and have been writing reviews for free since 1997).

I'll enjoy reading any and all opinions on these topics, so I hope this has at least piqued your interest ebough to respond.

Bill Binkelman

Mags like The Wire are created as a 'product' they could be about any subject, the backers bought into a music based mag, it could just as easily have been womens hair.

I haven't been on the business-side of E-dition, but our goal always has been to make a magazine as best & professional as possible; after a while we even started printing the magazine instead of scanning the pages, so its overall look became even bettter; some people asked about a bigger magazine or the content/cover in color; fact was he always had too much material for too less pages, the latter being restricted by reasons of work, postal costs etc.; we have asked our listeners how much one would pay extra when the cover would be in color, but we only got very low response on that (the same goes for the responses on the free raffles of cd's we had a few times in the mag.)

A goal for myself & the mag. had been close & regular communication with its members, to hear their feedback, opinions etc. but nothing like that happened.

The last 1,5 years I and Kees Aerts did a lot of troubles and efforts to expand the number of members worldwide, but after a short grow we experienced they started to drop by whatever reason...
The fact the magazine has ended still feels as a huge personal loss, also as I was the only one of the writers who only contributed to E-dition.

Bert

The answer is simple but taboo :

To produce a magazine (hardcopy) successfully you must have a healthy financial basis. Only with a stable ground you can build up a production and put creativity in it. Mentioning the word commerce often causes mixed feelings and might even give you the wrong impression however it is essential because without a commercial touch it is impossible to survive. So far almost all magazines have disappeared caused by lack of revenue which is a shame but understandable. Before starting an expensive adventure one should clearly plan everything and also realize the dangers and the risks involved. The combination of E-Dition's sampler was a step ahead and distinguished them from other Mags unfortunately it was not enough to continue. To make a long story short : the risk should be carried by external parties (advertisers, sponsors, members etc.) and not by the people that are responsible for the creative part of the job. Sponsoring sounds like an awful word but is desparately needed in order to LIVE and survive.