Anyone Else Disenchanted with Bass Player Magazine?

[CauliColin]

I really like Bass Guitar Magazine (Britain). I also subscribe electronically and it blows Bass Player away IMO. Waaayyyyy more articles on theory and technique and just a much better mag IMO. As an example, they have a 2-3 page column specific to bass chords... Every month.

I subscribe to BGM. I find it awesome. Since I subscribe, I sometimes get it early as well! Although, there seem to be a few more printing/editing errors than I'm comfortable with, but I'm willing to let it slide for a magazine as useful and badass as Bass Guitar Magazine.

 

[Pacman]

Things move too quickly at this point, and the bass magazines are double hit by a decline in the entire music category (i.e., kids taking music lessons or playing in old time 'guitar/bass/drums' sort of bands is also 'going away' to some extent).

Wow, your experience is quite a bit different than mine. I would submit that you might not be seeing it, but even my little suburban town of 18K had a show recently of 19 bands of kids taking lessons from a local store. That's 19 rock bands with kids from age 8 on up. I don't see the ubiquitous "garage band" of teenagers is going anywhere.

 

[MCS4]

This issue has been discussed several times, but BP gets a ton of gear to review. If you tested 20 pieces of gear, but only had space to review two or three of them, would you pick the gear with several flaws, or the quality gear that you think your readers should know about?

I don't agree with some of the other complaints but can say that some issues arise because they have significantly less staff now, and they were already understaffed before that (I worked briefly at the old BP office as an intern years ago).

 

[Immigrant]

I like it. I haven't read the British mag that people are referring to, but I'll look for it.

Until then, I'll continue to subscribe because it works better in my library/bathroom than my iPad. The iPad doesn't cross the threshold into the bathroom, whereas I don't care if my issues of BP get flagged.

 

[DWBass]

Was a long time subscriber years ago. Haven't bought or seen a copy in over 5 years now. Way too much advertising and not enough substance. I get way more info here at TB.

 

[MrLenny1]

Paper is being done in by electronic media.
My neighbor worked at the newspaper for many years.
She recently left because they are closing it in July.
BP was a great source for bass players until the internet hit.

 

[bassbully]

I gave up on that rag years ago.

 

[ArtechnikA]

It would not surprise me if the median age of a BP reader is in the late 40's, early 50's range. That is the start of a slow death.

Not sure why a demographic entering the age of affluence and professional accomplishment is a bad thing.

Guitar Afficianado, which I think is a sister publication, has this figured out.

Players in the 40's-50's are buying Mercedes, Porsches, Jaguars, Rolexes, Nikons, Patron Platinum, and Johnny Walker Blue.

If anybody is in the market for Fodera and Zon it's this group. As niche luthiers they probably don't have much of a marketing budget - and may already be producing all they can without expensive investment in facilities.

Still - who says BP can accept ads only from musical instrument and accessory makers? A little trend to lifestyle could be the thin edge of the wedge to a better revenue stream.

Yeah - BP is kinda lame. When I bought my first bass - this year - I started the subscription. I've seen the decline in only a few months. I don't know if I'll renew. Once, maybe, to give it a chance to re-invent itself.

I don't see them calling me to consult on their transformation, tho...

 

[KJung]

Wow, your experience is quite a bit different than mine. I would submit that you might not be seeing it, but even my little suburban town of 18K had a show recently of 19 bands of kids taking lessons from a local store. That's 19 rock bands with kids from age 8 on up. I don't see the ubiquitous "garage band" of teenagers is going anywhere.

Music changes. Not many Big Bands around by the 70's any more either. Piano sales are all but done, except for the very high end. Musical style changes, along with instrumentation. Very few musician's making a living as side men anymore either, like we did back in the day. It is a 'perfect storm' happening now IMO and IME.

Not saying it is all gone by any means, just on a pretty fast downturn. Nothing wrong with that. Same thing happened to horn sections when the four man band emerged in the 60's. Of course, horn sections didn't go away, but compared to the big band and jazz era, it was kind of 'done'.

Regarding the thread topic, combine the above with the massive, massive decline of print media, and I would not want to be the editor of a bass magazine at this point! I feel, as others have said above, that BP is probably doing the best it can in these 'end times' of the traditional rock era, that was so driven by guitar and bass and drums since the mid to late 50's.

 

[Jeff K]

I'm a long-time subscriber (about 20 years). When my subscription expires this time, I won't be renewing. But my reason is different from most of yours. For the cost of the mag when they give you the special (ie., "cheap") renewal prices, I can always find some interesting things each month that justifies the small cost. I do agree that it is not as good as it used to be, but there's almost always SOMETHING good in it.

For me though, it's that the font size has gotten so small that my 62-year-old eyes have a harder and harder time reading it. So this will be it for me...

 

[KJung]

Not sure why a demographic entering the age of affluence and professional accomplishment is a bad thing.

Given marketing consulting/new product testing, etc. is my day gig, a quick primer. A product that once was driven by youth and is failing to capture its fair share of the next generation, resulting in the median age of a buyer to increase year after year, is almost a perfect predictor of the end of the life cycle of the product, or in this case, the entire category as we know it. In other words, once those 50 year olds reach 70 and start to kick off and/or lose interest, there is no demographic coming up behind them. I would guess the magazine 'Rolling Stone' is another good example of this. Classic Rock CD reissues are another example of this.

Yes, there are products that always were luxury goods, purchased by people in their prime earning years. That is a completely different dynamic.

 

[BluesMan845]

That being said, what you don't see, is when a POS enters the office, and asks for a review. We always tried to give the real whiz-bangers some play if we were sent a product that just blew us away, advertising or not, but for the ones that sent us a POS, we returned them with a list of constructive suggestions for improvement.

And FWIW, I think the artist (and musical style) coverage is fairly diverse and unique. A flip through the covers on my music desk show Adam Blackstone, Wolfgang Van Halen, Bryan Beller, Steve Harris, Steve Bailey, Darryl Jenifer, Mike Dirnt, the Acoustic 360, Geddy Lee, Phil Lynott, Alex Webster, Esperanza Spalding, Hutch Hutchison and Gary Willis.

Yes, I have a stack there at all times, next to my charts, lyric books, chord and theory books, etc. Makes it pretty handy.

^ This... the person that posted they don't cover a wide range of musical styles has not seen the covers over the last year..

I am always suspicious that a magazine that gets a huge chunk of revenue from advertisers can be 100% objective in the review department. But, if everyones complaint is that they only review stuff that gets good reviews I have to ask why would you want them to waste space reviewing a piece of junk? I believe they used me more critical and it was much easier to find a list of "cons" shown along with the "pros". Now the cons listed are mostly fluff complaints like "heavy" or "expensive"... Still, I do enjoy the reviews where shootouts are done and a direct comparison is made between multiple manufacturers products.

I'm a long-time subscriber (about 20 years). When my subscription expires this time, I won't be renewing. But my reason is different from most of yours. For the cost of the mag when they give you the special (ie., "cheap") renewal prices, I can always find some interesting things each month that justifies the small cost. I do agree that it is not as good as it used to be, but there's almost always SOMETHING good in it.

For me though, it's that the font size has gotten so small that my 62-year-old eyes have a harder and harder time reading it. So this will be it for me...

There is always some good content in the magazine.. It's definitely not as good as it used to be and that is something I think we can all agree on but the level of "hate" the mag gets does not seem justified at all to me

I have sub'ed since the very first issues and will continue because I feel I get my roughly $20 worth of good info every year

 

[BluesMan845]

Not sure why a demographic entering the age of affluence and professional accomplishment is a bad thing.

Guitar Afficianado, which I think is a sister publication, has this figured out.

Players in the 40's-50's are buying Mercedes, Porsches, Jaguars, Rolexes, Nikons, Patron Platinum, and Johnny Walker Blue.

If anybody is in the market for Fodera and Zon it's this group. As niche luthiers they probably don't have much of a marketing budget - and may already be producing all they can without expensive investment in facilities.

Still - who says BP can accept ads only from musical instrument and accessory makers? A little trend to lifestyle could be the thin edge of the wedge to a better revenue stream.

Yeah - BP is kinda lame. When I bought my first bass - this year - I started the subscription. I've seen the decline in only a few months. I don't know if I'll renew. Once, maybe, to give it a chance to re-invent itself.

I don't see them calling me to consult on their transformation, tho...

On the rare occasion they did include an advertiser that didn't sell a "bass-related" product the level of hate thrown at them was ridiculous.

I have to respectfully ask how can assess a magazines "decline" is a few issues?

 

[MostlyBass]

Music "journalism", in general, is pretty disappointing. I really loved BPM years ago, but I hardly ever buy a copy these days. I've been a long-time subscriber to Guitar Player also and I think their standards have plunged pretty far in recent years, too.

Interestingly, I see music magazines from the UK from time to time on local news stands and the writing and coverage is much, much better. Okay, it's not like reading the Economist or anything, it's still a music rag, but it's put together to a much higher standard. I try to grab those when I see them.

I wish I could remember who it was who described music journalism as "People who can't write interviewing people who can't speak for people who can't read."

Interesting. As a classical music teacher I'm stopped getting American String Teacher as England's The Strad is such a better journal.

 

[KJung]

I have to respectfully ask how can one assess a magazine's "decline" in a few issues?

Assuming the above was your question, I think most of us are comparing the current issues (over the last year or so) to 5, 10 and even 20 years ago.

 

[ArtechnikA]

On the rare occasion they did include an advertiser that didn't sell a "bass-related" product the level of hate thrown at them was ridiculous.

Then I'd agree - that's a demographic that doesn't deserve the product!

I have to respectfully ask how can assess a magazines "decline" in a few issues?

Because I can see it in just a few issues (like 6...). Yes, it's that noticeable - to me anyway. Maybe it's seasonal and the spring/summer issues are always lame, and then they get better in the fall and winter. Too soon for me to tell. The latest issue (which I have here) is 82pp. I'll go back and look at page counts for the past 6 months but I do not think it's my imagination that the magazine is shrinking...

 

[MCS4]

FYI page counts for paper publications are often based upon advertising revenue, either directly or indirectly.

When I worked at a small daily paper, we didn't know how many pages we were going to have available for the next day's paper until we came into the office in the morning and got word from advertising.

Also, there seems to be a presumption here that the mag is picking and choosing what ads to print. It's generally pretty simple... someone pays for an ad, and then you print it, first come first served. If there are more people wanting to advertise than you have space for, you either increase publication size or increase the cost of the ads.

 

[bluesblaster]

the issues I have taken a look at over the last few years dont really compel me to want to subscribe. I see a ton of advertising and the content seems weak. why would I pay 6 or 7 dollars for this ? Maybe its the way most monthly periodicals are going these days. I used to have a subscription to an auto racing monthly that has been published for almost 50 years, when I get a chance to look through one now I barely recognize it, same deal, tons of advertising and lame fluffy content, they really lost there edge.

 

[hdracer]

I can not complain.
I have gotten it free for the past three years.

 

[Musiclogic]

BP was a great rag when it first came out, it was about as many players as they could get. Once ED Friedland took over the direction became more toward the high end player leaning toward Jazz players, after Ed stepped down the focus narrowed even more to the redundant little group that seem to show up every issue. Things change, target audience changes, advertising support changes, it's not necessarilly a decline, just a defining of focus.

In business, especially in publishing, you have to lean toward those that pay the bills. The under 35 crowd does not trend toward print, the older crowd still buys magazines.

I have plenty of issues from the 90's.....95 being the last year I really paid attention to BP, and it's very different to BP now, but as a whole still the same narrowed focus as when I quit reading it.

As for music Journalism, it has never been that great. Music writers are usually fans of specific genres they can't separate from or mediocre musicians. Musicians are usually horrible writers as they will drone on their opinion or the popular line and provide little info.?