Would You Subscribe to a Steel Guitar Magazine ?

[basilh]

I leaped to say yes but then I remembered, I never subscribed to Basil's mag....so I went and did it. What's next?

A big "Thank You" from both Pat and myself..Also thanks to Alan for mentioning us..

Alan, I hope you're listening to steel whilst you're not able to play.. Don't go pruning any more trees..Remember, your hands are for 'Delicate" work, well that's what Pat says !!

[Stu Schulman]

I enjoy sitting on my balcony with a cup of caffeine reading a magazine...sign me up!

[Pete Cormier]

It would be great. Hey and maybe even a
montly tab for us beginners.

[b0b]

It would be great. Hey and maybe even a monthly tab for us beginners.

The PSGA Newsletter has a new song tabbed every month. Dues are reasonable - $30/year. Subscribe at www.psga.org.

I've been a member for many years. I always enjoy the monthly newsletter.

[Alan Brookes]

...I don't want to have to keep track of things like e-zine subscriptions and banner advertising sales....

I wasn't suggesting that. I was just visualizing a place where essays could be posted.

[Bowie Martin]

Yes!!

[Herb Steiner]

Dead trees are the old economy. Sooooo 20th century. Starting a steel guitar print mag is a fool's errand. I did spend 10 years in advertising at a weekly newsmagazine in Austin and base my opinion on that experience, and as a participant in the steel guitar world for the last 45 years.

A print journal (and a commercial website) has not one but TWO "products," as it were. What it sells to its readership is informational; i.e. editorial content and ads. What it sells to its advertisers is access to the people who are interested in that company's products/services.

Costs are everything. Subscriptions bring in a little income, but are really just one of several tools to show advertisers how many people they can reach. Advertising pays the bills.

The life blood of publishing is advertising, and there's a whole new buyer's market ballgame for advertisers on the 'Net now. You can reach the entire freakin' world with a website than costs less than an a small, one-month ad in Guitar Player magazine.

Witness the recent demise of the print version No Depression. This is an excellent, top shelf magazine in all ways; intelligent editorial, good advertising base, high-quality paper (expensive). Also had a readership far larger and more eclectic than any steel guitar related thing. Problem? Advertisers finding it easier to advertise on the WWW and reduce their print exposure, therefore = lost revenue. The publishers finally closed up shop but are considering a Web-based version. I hope it happens.

We have this Forum now. Many participants on this Forum have websites with great steel guitar educational content, tabs, sound files, everything. Spend a little time browsing and you'll have more stuff to read and learn from than in a lifetime's worth of magazine content.

Sorry if I'm being wordy, I'm feeling chatty today.

[Pete Finney]

Great post, Herb; in my humble opinion you pretty much nailed it. I've always loved a good magazine myself but there's no arguing with this:

Spend a little time browsing and you'll have more stuff to read and learn from than in a lifetime's worth of magazine content.

[Jim Sliff]

Personally I love hard-copy magazines, and don't read the e-zines I get free subscriptions to. It's just too much trouble, and I don't want to carry a computer around and fire it up between appointments to kill 15 minutes here or there like I can with Rolling Stone, Surfer, Popular Photography or Guitar Player. Guitar Player probably has at least as much different content on their site each month as in the magazine itself, but I hardly ever go to the site just to read.

So I'd love to see a steel guitar magazine - preferably one that covered a little more breadth (which might ensure a better chance of survival) - with pedal steel, lap/console steel, dobro AND slide guitar sections. Slide is horribly neglected IMO opinion and many players use slide now and then with almost no magazine or website support. It's very closely related and should be included.

The other thing that would have to happen is whoever ends up publishing the thing needs (IMO) to adopt a VERY open-minded philosophy about the various instruments - in other words, if it ends up an E9/C6 pedal steel magazine aimed at the country crowd there's a slim chance of survival, as you're crippling it right out of the gate. Include more "outside" stuff like rock lapsteel, blues/rock pedal steel, various iterations of the Sacred Steel-influenced playing and some "setup of the month" features with articles about unusual and interesting copedents. Also have some stuff that's very generic that all players can benefit from, such as technique, grips, roll patterns that work in various tunings, etc.

Of course you don't want to cut E9 of at the knees since it's the most prevalent copedent - but making it and traditional country the primary focus would likely guarantee a limited subscriber base that has little chance for expansion.

[Brint Hannay]

I subscribe to Guitar Player magazine, but I couldn't read the current issue this week because it crashed and was down for four days!

(NOTE: I've never been to their website!)

[Dave Mudgett]

If you have to have a hardcopy,


Or if you have to have color,


I think the pedal steel guitar community has justified skepticism of any such project. I don't sense real support for an ambitious project, requiring a large investment and fancy price tag.

I think it's also important to acknowledge that the mainstream pedal steel community and many other guitar players using bars and slides don't have all that much in common - musically or sociologically. There is a pretty clear demographic demarcation, which makes a targeted marketing approach appropriate, IMO.

Remember also that Basil already has a mag for the Hawaiian steel guitar community. Why dilute that effort? Again - why try to be all things to all people?

As far as logistics of an e-zine, it couldn't be simpler. Make it a straightforward PDF file. I believe there are even facilities with Acrobat to limit the number of times the file is copied or printed. When a new issue is published, an email could be sent to the subscriber base with a direct download link. Download it, print it if you have to - bim, bam, boom. If it's not expensive, I think people would support it. Keeping it in e-format should make it possible to keep it reasonable. I believe a large portion of the publishing cost for something like this is printing and physical distribution.

As Herb says - I hope No Depression finally does an online version. I already miss it.

[Don Sulesky]

I have purchased all of Tom's mags and all of Russ's mags. But because I got tagged for a lost of a year's future issues from Russ I will not buy any more steel magazines.
I think for the majority of us all the Forum serves as a wealth of knowledge and we have the orportunity to ask a question and get an answer.

[Joel Meredith]

What Jim Sliff said