<rant>
The latest issue of Electronic Musician magazine came today, and it’s got me scratching my head a bit.
Electronic Musician has a solid history of covering, you know, electronic musicians.
It’s benefited from the contributions of writers like Gino Robair, Craig Anderton and Geary Yelton over the years, and I’ve enjoyed reading their often in-depth coverage of electronic music gear and electronic music artists.
Electronic Musician has featured many great interviews, with electronic musicians like Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream & solo work), Thomas Dolby, Infected Mushroom, Richard Devine, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Deadmau5, Girl Talk, Richie Hawtin, Bakis Sirros and others.
So I took one look at this month’s issue of Electronic Musician, above right, and asked myself, “W.T.F.?”
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl is a badass of American rock.
But, when I think of electronic musicians and electronic music, Foo Fighters are not the very first band that jumps to mind.
They’re not at the very tippy top of the list.
I tend to think more of bands that make electronic music. Music that explores the possibilities afforded by synthesizers, sampling and electronic music processing.
Do you think that Armin van Buuren and Tiësto and Sasha and Carl Cox and Klaus Schulze and Robert Rich and Sven Väth and Daft Punk and Justice and The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim and Brian Eno and Depeche Mode and Jean Michel Jarre and Giorgio Moroder and Trent Reznor and Moby and Wendy Carlos and Gary Numan and Vangelis and Derrick May and The Human League and Tomita and Air and Grandmaster Flash and Trevor Horn and B friggin’ T and Boards of Canada and Throbbing Gristle and Yello and The Crystal Method and Herbie Hancock and Mike Oldfield and Popol Vuh and Manuel Göttsching and Devo and Gorillaz and Lords of Acid and Thievery Corporation and Edgar Froese and Lamb and William Orbit and Jean-Jacques Perrey and David Holmes and Propellerheads and Juno Reactor and Laurie Anderson and Public Enemy and The Residents and Philip Glass and Pauline Oliveros and John Chowning and Morton Subotnick and Amir Baghiri and DJ Lisa Lashes and Alison Goldfrapp and Morcheeba and the rest of the bajillion people that make electronic music were all unavailable for this month’s issue?
Looking inside this month’s Electronic Musician magazine, it turns out that the publisher had to combine two of their magazines, EQ magazine and the old EM magazine, because of declining sales. Maybe they had to use interviews that they already had in the works at EQ or something, because, this month’s issue also features “scuzz-rock” artists The Kills, Swedish rockers Peter Bjorn and John and indie-popster Adam Goldberg.
I’m hoping that Electronic Musician will again cover electronic musicians. Otherwise, let it R.I.P.
</rant>
What do you think? Is it too harsh to write of the revamped Electronic Music magazine, based on one issue? Or has this thing completely jumped the shark?
Ugh. I hope they release a DvD of all past issues. Overprice it by $15 and throw in a subscription. There you go I saved the company 😉
While I have your attention. Can you please get rid of the quadruple + posts? It’s so terrible. Can’t you do some computer-Fu that prevents word-for-word copies if posts or something? Or a timeout/lockout after posting? Everytime some idiot gets his blood pressure worked up about the m audio venom or whatever (lol great synth!) I gotta see a rant (like this 🙂 ) but seven times over? Ugh. Again
Are you talking about double comments appearing?
If they can't keep true to themselves then let them DIE.
If they needed to merge EQ and EM, they should probably have named it EQ, since that title can cover a wider variety of topics.
If they need more readers why don't they just cover the electro pop and rap groups that flood the radio.
EQ has never been anything but a publisher of thinly-disguised press releases for the most part. I'm sorry to see it take over EM.
Its been dead a lot longer than this last months issue…
The amount of content in EM has been steadily declining. Maybe people into "electronic" music prefer "electronic" sources, rather than dead-tree media. Hopefully, the merged EM/EQ will be stronger, though, because it would be a shame to see them disappear entirely. They already folded Remix a few years ago. (Have to wonder if the US edition of Sound On Sound has been hammering EM/EQ since it began.)
They made the announcement in last month's issue. The fact that you didn't read it may explain part of the problem.
They announced that they thought that from now on, Electronic Musician would only guitar rockers? I did miss that…….
Well it's not lack of readers – these things exist on ad revenue period , not paid subscriptions, if the electronic vendors don't advertise well the magazine gets thinner, as a controlled subscription publication they need to maintain a legally mandated ad-tocopy ratio, or else they have to pay way more postage – as for the foo fighters? meh
wtf
Dude, you should subscribe to Keyboard instead, They always had more articles and reviews relevant to this site. EQ is just old baby boomer rock producers and EM all pro-tools adulation. Sure Keyboard has piano guys on the cover sometimes but that's still more relevant to the average synth owner than some guitar god or whatever…
…sadly the Web is killing most magazines just now…
Playing devils advocate, short of recording your album in ToeRag Studios, isn't EVERY album – be it 'electronic' or classical…effectively electronic? Passed through A/D converters, recorded into a computer, edited in a computer, probably largely processed within the computer with virtual effects?
Isn't that the very definition of an 'Electronic' Musician, in one sense?
The magazine business has been hit especially hard during this recession. I am not surprised to see something like this happen. I does look like though, they are trying to hang on to their EM readership by continuing to call it Electronic Musician while not really being about electronic music anymore. It won't work of course; once those readers see those changes, they will abandon it.
Ifo is completely correct, it is all about advertising dollars and ad pages vs. editorial pages. Subscription fees generally only cover the actual cost of production (editorial, design, typography, pre-press and press) and if the advertisers are not there, then you have no book.
Magazines have been taking quite a hit over the past ten years – especially niche magazines – with electronic media cutting deeply into their audiences thus the advertiser pool. Long established magazines (Gourmet, House and Garden for example) have been falling by the wayside for years. Magazines that have not closed have shrunk to a thin shell of their former selves (Architectural Digest for example). The Great Recession has exacerbated that culling by a great amount.
It's a shame, looks like there is only one general audience electronic music magazine left here in the US, "Keyboard."
Didn't Dave Grohl do "Everybody Needs a 303?"
I get more news and information in a afternoon of using the web than an entire year of issues of EM. I think that is the problem all magazines face right now.
I think Sound on Sound do it right. Less ads, more copy.
I'm afraid that the British electronic music mags, such as SOS, Future Music, Music Tech, and Computer Music, took over a long time ago. Electronic Musician and Keyboard are mere pamphlets compared to them!
i've been a subscriber for years, but just the other month I started thinking about letting it lapse. it is sad to see this growing apathy is not just me.
Yah Foo Fighters has been all over Soundcloud in recent weeks if anyone else noticed… i'd imagine that it's just the way that dave grohl is choosing to promote the band lately I'd imagine he offered and EM/EQ couldn't refuse
There isn't a band out there that doesn't fall into the category electronic musician. I think it's unfair to criticize the magazine because it's trying to expand it's readership, especially, as mentioned, in these trying times for print. As for the list of 'excluded' electronics artists; Why not just interview up and comers? You know, help the industry instead of pushing mostly has beens, living on their past glories?
I hope that this is a blip, too, but it looks like their just trying to appeal to more readers.
I disagree with the idea that “everybody’s an electronic musician” now. You can’t tell me Norah Jones is an electronic musician – just that her music is delivered digitally.
I wonder if guitar manufacturers are still advertising, but software and keyboard manufacturers aren't?
Digitized music and electronic music are different things!
Pamphlets is exactly the word. I got REALLY tired of seeing Keyboard's columnists write "We don't have room to go into it here." European music magazines are serious and detailed. American music magazines are now just ads for Goldfrapp and Ableton Live. I grew into synthesizers far better due to Keyboard, but when it started shedding its most able writers and the actual text became so diminished, I knew that all the times the magazine had changed owners were a clear sign of its decay. Do I need or want to see pictures of effing Depeche Mode's stack of 20-to-40-year-old drum machines? What the bleep for?
Merging those two magazines will only alienate both audiences, so consider the magazine dead walking already. I barely found enough in it most months to read while standing for a few minutes next to a magazine rack… that is of course assuming it could even be found. I can't feel bad though… these magazines have had roughly 15 years to work out how to get their content onto the web! If they can't work it out by now, good riddance. Take your crappy Black Eyed Peas interview and go.
I've been amazed at how keyboard and "electronic" music mags are so hard to find anywhere, even the big stores like barnes and nobles, but the old boomer guitar mags are even at the grocery stores. I guess it's because we use the web. 🙂 FWIW, even the guitar mags are a far cry from what they used to be. I read them back in the early 90s and they would have interviews and instructional music from excellent players like Stevie Ray Vaugh, Satriani, Santana etc. Now they are mostly full of crap articles and music that barely challenges a new guitar player in his/her first 6 months.
Fungo nailed it.
American magazines are going in exactly the wrong direction – going fluffier and more superficial. They should be doing deep, must read stuff – stuff that works better in print.
They certainly don’t need to be doing fluff pieces on new gear at NAMM and Musikmesse. They’re about two months behind websites on news like that, so why bother?
5 years ago, there were three good magazines covering electronic music gear, and now it’s just Keyboard, and it’s been seriously dumbed down.
Anybody remember when Keyboard had Bob Moog on the staff?
SOS is the last hardcore gear mag for electronic musicians, and even it isnt as good as when it used to have a Gordon Reid article every month!
9 times the color red explodes…..
In February, NewBay Media acquired Mix magazine, Electronic Musician, Radio, Sound & Video Contractor (SVC), and DigitalContentProducer.com, from Penton. There's a pretty good post from Stephen Fortner about it here: http://ht.ly/4yAjx
I bet part of what happened is that EQ already had some stuff ready to run, and that's what they did. But with Craig Anderton staying on as Executive Editor, I'd be surprised if we saw much of a Foo Fighter-esque slant going forward, but ultimately, they'll want to be able to get advertisers to advertise.
With no more Remix and this change, it does seem like there's less dedicated coverage for electronic music in print. Fortunately, there's quite a community online in places like this one.
Keyboard & SOS have been long-time favorites, with the occasional Future Music and Computer Music mags.
Keyboard seems like it's aiming for trendiness rather than thinking long-term, but SOS seems pretty solid.
@kentsandvik
Some people might argue that Synthtopia, Sonic State and Create Digital Music are killing off Electronic Musician Magazine, but I'd disagree.
Most music magazines seriously handicap their websites in order to preserve their print business. As a result, their Websites are weak and their magazines are printing news that you've read about on the Web a month ago.
Magazines like Electronic Musician are failing to capitalize on their biggest strength – the respect that their writers have built up with readers over decades in print. They can't leverage that experience printing lightweight content and news highlights.
mildheadwound
I'd have to echo comments above – there's a difference between digitized music and electronic music.
Electronic music explores the aesthetic possibilities afforded by music technology. That's a different idea than music that's just amplified or recorded.
So don't plan on Synthtopia covering "scuzz rockers" anytime soon!
dajebus
Agreed! SOS is doing a good job of staying relevant and taking advantage of the respect that Paul White and others have earned.
Print is a great medium for deep reviews, in-depth interviews and their timeless stuff, like their lookbacks at the production of classic tracks.
It seems like the publishers of European music magazines are thinking a little further ahead and adapting to change more effectively than their US counterparts.
Hahaha! I have to acknowledged when i'm whipped. Not really knowing this band, i just assumed, (yes ass u&me'd), that this band used a selection of digi~distortions, fx or what not, as most commercial bands do. Production techniques aside. It's worst then that i'm afraid; according to the video in the bottom of this link, they claim to not even use computers in their recordings. Electronic musicians they most definitely are not.
http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/04/12/foo-fighters-w…
Hahaha! I have to acknowledged when i'm whipped. Not really knowing this band, i just assumed, (yes ass u&me'd), that this band used a selection of digi~distortions, fx or what not, as most commercial bands do. Production techniques aside. It's worst then that i'm afraid; according to the video in the bottom of this link, they claim to not even use computers in their recordings. Electronic musicians they most definitely are not.
http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/04/12/foo-fighters-w…
Yeah – Foo Fighters is on a retro garage band kick, avoiding any 'studio trickery'.
Makes EM seem that much more out of touch!
I let my subscription lapse about six months ago. EM has just been getting thinner and thinner, and has less to offer me as a reader. I feel like the over the past year, it's changed to the point where it's just not interesting and relevant to what I do anymore.
Let's see: 1) Dave Grohl provided drums for two tracks on Prodigy's "Invaders Must Die," 2) Butch Vig produced the new album and he was in Garbage, and 3) there is a keyboardist on the new album, as well as, part of the extended line-up. That's all I got. I agree that it doesn't make much sense.
Hey I just got a 12-month subscription to Keyboard magazine for 10.88$ ! Through, (of all places), Sears!!! Who knew Sears sells magazine subscriptions. and cheap!
Forget EM. That magazine could never hold a match to Keyboard.
Hey maybe now that EM has sold out, Keyboard might actually lose its "pamphlet" status…
Good deal! I didn't know Sears carried magazine subs!
That Kylee is female is irrelevant. However good or bad an editor she may be has nothing to do her gender, it has entirely to do with her abilities (or lack thereof) as an editor; experience, knowledge, writing skills, etc.
Actually, her name is Kylee *Swenson* — Swanson is the TV dinner company. But please — sounds like "editor" is a perfect vocation for you.
this guy is so right. more content,free DVD's with software,sounds, younger guys writing more, um, lustfully, like the way i think about gear. More 'bedroom'/knowledge emphasis, as opposed to 'pro/industry' douchey posturing, more relevant (even though im into industrial and never, ever even heard of these techno/house guys they adulate in the brit mags, they at least speak my language, not EM's grateful dead engineer telling remove-the-brown-peanut-m and m's stories about lemmy from motorhead and …..) anyway, what was i talking about?
We received a complaint about Wally's comment, suggesting that it is misogynistic.
We try to catch comments that are clearly sexist, racist or hateful and delete them. After reviewing the original comment, we deleted it, based on the fact that it at least some readers viewed the comment as misogynistic.
Sorry that this butchers this thread of discussion – but it's tangential, anyway.
Perhaps EM should rename themselves "Electric Musician"…. for musicians who use amplifiers.
LOL! Ain't that the truth.
EM has focused on mainstream artists for the last 10 years. Upcoming issues have Moby, Danger Mouse, Amon Tobin. They just relaunched with new editors so it will probably take a while to get their speed back. But it will probably carry over some of the rock coverage that was in EQ.
Some comments here are right on target, some are way wrong. If I gave a detailed analysis it would take forever 🙂 But, a few facts. EQ has been on the ascendancy the past few years in terms of ad dollars and readership; the digital edition has done particularly well (yes, it is available electronically), which is why EQ's content is being added to EM. EQ's specialty is applications-oriented articles, and that is what will be brought over to EM – practical stuff (how anyone can consider an article describing some useful, say, DAW or guitar recording technique is a "thinly-veiled press release" is beyond me…whatever).
There have been legacy articles from both EM and EQ that need to run, so the mag won't be totally new and different for a few issues.
As to what consistutes an "electronic musician," as I coined that term, I get to define it 🙂 The "electronic musicians" are, and have always been when I was there, *the readers* – not who's on the cover. AFAIC the readers are the stars. I'm not a huge Foo Fighters fan, but I found the article interesting and a good read. BUT one of the advantages of doing EM instead of EQ is I'm way into the DJ scene – there's some great electronic music happening there, and it was something we could never really cover in EQ. Check out my Back Page in the May EM…
I will say that I took issues to Frankfurt Messe and I was expecting the kind of blowback I'm seeing here, but it just didn't happen. People loved it. I think many people felt both EM and EQ were too specialized and inclusive, and what they see is EM broadening out. As many of you realize, the crucial thing is to get advertiser support as that determines the number of pages. More pages = more articles = being able to take care of the needs of more readers.
It's always a balancing act, but the paradox is that if you're not happy with a magazine – any magazine – the only solution is to support it and flood it with feedback about what WOULD make you happy. Magazines REALLY listen to reader comments, but it's only by chance I found what's being said here, and it's not going to where it matters – the publishers. If after a year the mag isn't more to your liking, then it probably never will be. But if it is, you can thank yourself for helping to make it happen.
As to show reports in print, I COULD NOT AGREE MORE!! If you don't want to see them, please write in to the mag and say you don't want to see show reports. It's something I've been saying for years, and I actually got them out of EQ for a while…until the powers-that-be noticed they were missing. They feel readers want them; I'm sure some do, but I doubt the majority do.
As to print vs. web, as you may know I do both – web with Harmony Central, print witn EM. I am convinced each does certain things better than the other; the trick is to make sure that a mag consists only of what works in print. When I first became Executive Editor of EQ, the first thing I said was "We don't do anything the web does better" – hence the roundups, Power App Alley, the techniques columns, etc. There are still many tweaks I'd like to make, but I'm learning to be patient…
Better go before I overstay my welcome 🙂
Oh, one more thing: Also send your comments to Sarah Jones, as she's much more involved in the day-to-day running of the magazine, works out of the office (I'm remote), and is in closer communication with the rest of the staff. She had the extremely difficult task of producing the last issue of (old) EM and the first issue of (new) EM simultaneously, then had to go off to Frankfurt in the middle of production, but she should be up for air soon and very interested in what people have to say. We've talked a lot about the future direction of the magazine, and I think a lot of what's planned addresses the criticisms people had of EM lately.
Craig
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
I hope the fact that we have a lot of respect for the history of EM comes through in our original post, even if we're critical of its current state.
It's clear that Synthtopia readers are passionate about EM and its direction. Part of that has to be that many of us consider it and Keyboard as "ours". They've historically been about synths, drum machines, MIDI, recording technology and electronic musicians, not guitar rock. The current direction makes it look like one of the few magazines for "us" may not be for us anymore.
You brought up another interesting point – about magazines and websites having different strengths. I agree – but still see EM (and keyboard, too) trying to do too much time-sensitive news coverage and not enough analysis that draws on your writers' unique experience.
We already know what's been introduced at Musikmesse – but we don't know why you think that the new Roland/Yamaha/Korg thing is the most important introduction or what they technology means.
I look forward to seeing upcoming issues to see how the direction evolves.
I'm way late to the game on this, but I just got my issue the other day and wanted to comment — I sort of wanted to hate the format, but I liked it. To be honest, EM *had* been getting a bit stale for me, and this seems like it will mix it up a bit (no pun intended). I hope there is a return to more "electronic" elements (perhaps leading with a cover story about someone eschewing all modern technology wasn't the best choice), but I really enjoyed the overall feel and content of the new issue and am excited for new ones.
FYI – Moby is on the cover of the next issue 🙂 OTOH the Foo Fighters have the #1 album right now, so that's going to help the magazine a lot.
Thanks for the kind words. For our first "new" issue, it is getting a very good response. Frankly, I'm surprised…generally people don't like to see their old favorites change, but I agree, change was overdue.
[youtube b-zVK82n6Go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zVK82n6Go youtube]
The Foo Fighters got remixed by Deadmau5. That's out of left field.
If they start getting played at dance bars, I may be pwned.
Hey, not everyone can be a Sound on Sound. :O
But I'm thrilled to see Craig Anderton (I've enjoyed many of your works) help us understand more about what goes on behind-the-scenes — what a great example of "reaching out to your customers".
Synthhead, more rants please. I love it when you editorialize at length, commenting on how you feel about what you post.
We've got plenty to rant about, but we have to cover the new gear news, too, so people can complain in the comments about us being shills for Roland/Yamaha/Korg/Apple/The Man.
So after saying you were not going to delete it "after reviewing it", you re-reviewed it and deleted it, based on the fact that SOME of the readers found it misogynistic. Way to cave in.
Those whom benefit from gender biased or racial biased hiring, always call those whom do not like it, names, and then proceed to squash free speech about the subject. Its really too bad
others allow this to happen repeatedly.
I have no desire to be an editor of a magazine or a blog 🙂 and never have. Thanks for the correction on the name, so….. Kylee Swenson wrecked Remix Magazine, which was at it's height the best ever American magazine about producing electronic music. Of course, it is
probably more accurate to say the person(s) whom hired her, wrecked it.
I agree. It was her lack of experience and knowledge that made her a bad editor, not the fact that she was a women.
You coined the term? Give me a break! The term "electronic musician" was firmly in place in the 1950s. and I was using it in the 1960s.
I've been out of EM since the August 2007 issue, other than helping Gino Robair with the transition when I got kicked upstairs. But I worked on EM for 20 years and founded Remix. So take what I say with some extra salt because obviously I have a history there.
From the start, EM was about personal recording as much as it was electronic music in the sense of synths 'n' samplers 'n' software. (Craig, sorry, inventing a term does not give you the right to define it. Language is a living thing, defined by public usage, and you lost control of the term the day you published it. But your opinion commands respect!) For years, we also ran do-it-yourself projects for those who wanted to build their own gear, until that went out of fashion.
When EM was torn from my hands back in 2007, a corporate decision was made to feature people on the cover and go more heavily for interviews. But of course, we always did interviews, and not necessarily with "electronic musicians." I recall some great interviews with producers like George Martin and Arif Mardin and many others. Mardin gave advice about how to work with diva singers, hardly electronic music. But we always emphasized products and how-to applications and such, and we put products on the cover. Lots of magazines had interviews, and I felt that left room for EM and our friends across the Pond, Sound on Sound, to focus primarily on gear and how-to, with interviews supplementing that. Some liked the gear and applications emphasis better, some obviously prefer a heavier emphasis on interviews. SoS is the closest to the sort of magazine I tried to make EM, and it's my favorite tech mag now.
For me, EM died the day NewBay Media bought it, although it had been ceased being the magazine I wanted it to be well before that. The only "classic EM" editor left at EM is Craig, though that is a significant exception. Sarah Jones is very good at what she does but she was in the Mix magazine world for a long time, and what she does best has never been electronic music or tips for better personal recording. So we must rely on Craig to balance that. I think the new mag is EQ with an EM chaser, and if you want the truth, I'd have preferred that they call it EQ, but the name is not important. What's important is whether "EQM" is a good magazine. And I think it's too soon to judge that. Let's give 'em some time and see what the magazine becomes.
Steve
Thanks for the straight talk comment.
Your perspective on this topic is close to mine.
I'm disappointed at the current state of EM; I think magazines still have an important role to play; and I'm hoping that Anderton and others can make the new EM into a great magazine again.
In its current state, EM seems like the result of a compromise hammered out in a committee. It leaves me wondering whether what a lot of us think of as the "classic era" of a magazine like EM or Keyboard would be viable anymore.
I am very interested to see how many people are posting the desire for longer, in-depth articles. My interest in writing for EM and other magazines started to fall off as there came to be more and more pressure to keep everything really short and simple, which really started after Steve left. Now, I don't want to blame that on Gino, because he loves in-depth stuff and tried to run stuff I gave him as long as he could. I think the pressure was coming from above, and it certainly was not happening just at EM!
The day it really hit me is when an editor for another magazine (who shall remain unnamed because he's actually a good egg) said to me about an assignment, "Anything longer than a toilet read is too long."
Yikes!
(Nowadays, I'm writing lots of reviews for Gino over at Gearwire and he's happy to run them as long as I write them….and I write 'em damned long, when need be.)
I wasn't crazy about that first issue of "EQM" (nice, Steve), but I agree that when there is a change like that you really need to give a little time for the magazine to find its feet and figure out what it now wants to be.
However, the age of magazines seems sadly to be on the wane. You can get news faster on the web, but you often won't get things that have been thoroughly researched, and it can be very difficult to tell those who actually know what they're talking about from those who don't, or perhaps know some, but not as much as they're saying.
There was a time that you could fairly well rely on an established, respected magazine to give good information. But there is no longer the money in publishing to support real journalism. (Well, truth to tell, the magazines never paid much, but more than they can now. I never made much money anyway because I couldn't stop myself from putting in lots of hours on research and wording, but that's my cross to bear.)
Larry
Lots of interesting comments from you, Steve, Craig and others!
The publisher's aversion to "Anything longer than a toilet read" seems like a huge mistake.
Focusing on short news items is a death wish for print magazines, because we've already read these news items a month and a half before they ever show up in Keyboard or 'EQM'. That attitude makes about half the pages worthless to me.
What I really like to see is thoughtful articles, deep interviews and reference or tutorial content that I might want to refer back to. It's great to be able to kick back and read some really in-depth articles and I'd rather do that on the sofa than sitting at a computer.
My fear, though, is that EM and Keyboard are going to keep focusing on short news items because they're cheap to produce, and eliminate stuff that makes these magazines relevant in the process.
Wow. Steve O. left a long, thoughtful comment. Very cool. For me (previously being a regular reader for 15 years), the JTS moment was when it became “EM”. Names mean something. I am much less willing to eat at “KFC” than at “Kentucky Fried Chicken”. I really don’t like feeling “over-marketed” to. When you decide to focus on the novice market, because they the ones dropping all the money on new gear and advertisers care about that, you are essentially writing off the rest of the readership.
Beginners don’t really know that what the Foo Fighters are doing has little-to-nothing to do with anything they are likely to do for even a couple of years. It’s just the same as putting Jennifer Anniston or some attractive famous person on a cover. It’s there to sell magazines. Pandering, if you will.