Idolator
The good news for music-magazine publishers: People want to read your stuff! The bad news for music-magazine publishers: They don't want to pay to do so! Over the weekend, a .PDF file of the latest issue of Revolver popped up on one of the .rar blogs, and while we're guessing most downloaders were more interested in ogling the lead singer of Lacuna Coil than reading the Zakk Wylde interviewer, it's the first time we've ever seen a music mag wind up on the file-flinging sites (though we had seen issues of Harper's and a few other high-falutin' titles on Oink). When we asked a Revolver rep if the magazine had intentionally sent the issue out into the wilds of the Internet—something The Fader started doing last year with the ITunes store—they said they did not, and claimed they were planning to look into the matter.
So: The music magazines may be next to undergo the exciting process of file-sharing. End of the world, or publishing-biz salvation?
PROS: With blogs and websites chipping away at their audience, the music titles could use more readers; if people were to have the issue delivered to their desktop and notice the use of "reporting" and "sometimes pretty good writing," they might decide to subscribe. Plus, a lot of the music-mags' websites are doing a lousy job of getting content online quickly; with easy-to-distribute .zip files, they can get their content—and, theoretically, their ad pages—in front of more potential enthusiasts.
CONS: The way newsstand sales have been lately, this is not the time to start giving it away for free, and the whole "let them sample it and then they'll buy it" model hasn't exactly worked perfectly for the music industry. Not to mention the fact that reading an entire issue on .PDF is a big strain on the eyeballs, especially by the time you get to the middle of the book.
THE VERDICT: Still iffy, although it might be worth digitizing an issue or two, putting them online, and seeing what happens. Besides, the kids are going to do it anyway.
Comments
fuck the mag I want to go gaga over Cristina Scabbia
highfalutin. one word, no apostrophe. sincerely, Pedant.
Decibel pretty much gives away their whole mag for free on their website. I bet it's helping sales more than hurting...
This really isn't all that new - slightly newer than whole books in PDF format, and it's pretty widespread.
Personally, I think it's more an indication that now that people realize they can steal practically anything that can be stored as data, they're going to steal everything they can avoid paying for.
Sound on Sound is always available on torrent sites.
one of them has to be Cristina Scabbia, but who is the other one?
girl on the left is cristina. the girl on the right is the keyboard player from bleeding through. marta maybe is her name?
@Hamster-Style: You know that's who I thought it was...Too bad both of those bands suck.
Still, pretty cool that Kylesa is on that hottest chicks tour. They offset the crappiness.
.....My cousin works for the local newspaper, and he says that advertising is where most publications make their money. The money you pay to get your paper or magazine delivered basically pays for printing and distribution.
.....If most budding young musicians are broadband-connected, the publishers better get on the stick and get it out on the web, or risk going bankrupt. Putting the magazine out in .pdf would keep adblock plus from stripping the ads, too.
.....Frankly, though, I'm stumped at who would bother to take the time to scan an entire issue of "Revolver" and post it without getting paid!
I've tried a digital magazine subscription before. Maybe I'm reaching heretofore unknown plateaus of laziness, but scrolling down through pages is was much more of a pain in the ass than just flipping through them.
More Cristina Scabbia = a good day for me. I say bring it any way you like; I'll take it.
It's always nice to see female musicians taking their careers seriously.
If that list on the lower right-hand side of the cover includes bands that have members included in the pictorial, 1. Since when is Evanescence metal? 2. When did Amy Lee stop getting pissed off by being objectified?
@niwi: IANAL (I am not a lady), but I hear that some womyn dress sexily to please themselves, or something.
Every music(especially Rolling Stone and Blender) and entertainment magazine has encouraged people to download music since the late 90's. It would be pretty cool to see some of them suffer the same fate the music labels and retailers have dealt with.
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