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Bass Player magazine

#81
One final gripe from me, one of the reasons I subscribe to magazines is so I don't have to hunt them down at the newsstands. When a special issue comes out like the recent Studio bassists one, it would be nice if you let subscribers know about them and maybe get them at a special price.
It's not only you guys, the subscription dept outsourcing at most magazines leaves a bit to be desired.
 
#82
jerry said:
One final gripe from me, one of the reasons I subscribe to magazines is so I don't have to hunt them down at the newsstands. When a special issue comes out like the recent Studio bassists one, it would be nice if you let subscribers know about them and maybe get them at a special price.
It's not only you guys, the subscription dept outsourcing at most magazines leaves a bit to be desired.
Click to expand...

I agree, I didn't even know about the special issue til I read it here, now I need to hunt down a back-issue copy of it...
 
#84
Here's an idea. Take it back down from 12 issues a year to 8 and put more content into the mag and make it thicker. I'd rather have it less often with more content. More transcriptions like Guit*r Player (*EDIT*, I MEANT TO SAY GUITAR WORLD!). They do like 4 or 5 songs per issue. Maybe write less stories over and over again about Jaco, Jamerson etc. That's been done to death. I'm pretty sure they have had all of their stories told by now. I understand that name people on the cover sells magazines. Fine. Put them on the cover and write about other bassists inside. More photos of people playing would be nice too.

Just my .02 cents.
 
#85
Hey Eric,

Printing fewer copies per year is a perfect example of a suggestion that sounds good, but would never work, at least not within our current business structure. There are many such suggestions in this and other threads. Oh, and about Guitar Player: they don't do 4-5 songs per issue. In fact, they rarely do ONE full-song transcription in an issue. I should know, as the magazine is made about 20 feet from my office door.

There are a variety of boring business-y reasons why less frequency would be nearly impossible at the moment: (1) Existing contracts with printers, (2) Existing contracts with distributors, (3) Contracts with advertisers, (4) Co-mail partnerships with NewBay's other titles, etc.

That said, it's not like printing fewer copies would necessarily allow us to have more pages. That, too, is a budgetary issue based on revenue per issue published. We sell more ads, the issue gets bigger. It's a simple equation.

Along those lines, while I can handle the ire at BP's size reduction (which I hope is temporary) and I find the suggestions helpful and instructive, I do wish some of the energy was also directed at the other facets of the community which greatly substantiate BP's success, i.e. the manufacturing community. When they drop out b/c of their own budgetary pressure, we drop pages. We're all in this together and the industry is small enough where a single drop somewhere can ripple across the sector's entire pool of available money.

As for the age-old "you guys write about Jamerson/Jaco/Geddy, etc. etc." argument, all I can say is that we spend A LOT of time writing about other guys. In fact, we spend the vast majority of our time writing about other guys (and girls)...and, when we do cover the icons, we intend to only do it when something substantially new and intriguing is revealed about their musicianship. Thus, the recent Jamerson story...we had unprecedented access to the Motown masters, and were able to hang out in the studio with AJ and Jamerson, Jr. while soloing his original tracks. How could I not write about that? It was an amazing and historic experience.

Jonathan Herrera
Senior Editor
BASS PLAYER
 
#88
I don't have a problem with the thinner magazine, those of us that work a 9-5 have all seen our companys make serious cuts in the last year. I have subscibed for about 10 years and I am always happy with wide range of music covered, other music magazines tend to focus only on current rock music. The article on Willie Weeks playing on the Donny Hathaway album was a personal favorite of mine.
 
#89
Jonathan,

Nobody blames you for the decreased page count, I think. Most of us understand that's out of your hands.

But what's NOT out of your hands is the crazy decision to amplify your text size to "Grandma's Bible" proportions! We're getting less info per page because you're gobbling space up with letters people can read from orbit. If we can't have more pages, at least give us back more words per page by putting the text size back to normal.

BP can't have THAT many blind senior citizen subscribers. And the ones it DOES have can get their glasses out to read BP, just like they would for everything else they read. ...except maybe for grandma's bible.

And get a new photo taken with a shirt that fits, you hairy stud. This is a family publication! ;0)
 
#91
Judging by the ads I've seen in BP the last year or so, I'd say the gear manufacturers are going hard after the black/death metal crowd in print and targeting other demographics via the Internet or other methods. I understand in these tough times that magazines have to take whatever advertising they can get, but since I'm totally not in that demographic I have found BP to be less relevant to me than it used to be.

I also understand BP can't just run the 28th feature on Geddy Lee or the 19th interview with Chris Squire but a lot of the guys they're profiling lately I can't really get into.

Not that I don't want BP to survive... I just won't be buying or subscribing, myself.
 
#94
I just got the issue with the Motown Vault on the cover. Not sure what issue it is. It has like 66 pages. I just don't find it as informative as in years past. I let my subscription run out and have no plans to renew it anytime soon.
 
#95
TimWilson,

Your complaint about the font size is another excellent distillation of the challenges of creating a magazine for such a broad audience, demographically speaking. I could show you literally hundreds of emails complaining about how small the text was in the previous design. People just as adamant as you are that the text size is wrong and is thus corrupting their enjoyment of the magazine.

As for our opinion, staff-wise, we all felt it was a little small. Just because you brought it up, I'll take another look at some recent issues tomorrow, do a little informal polling, and see what the latest consensus is.

As for my pic, I do need a new one, though I find your focus on my tight shirt slightly disturbing. As for the hair, I've made a major adjusment...to the stuff on my head. Thus, the need for a new pic...here's the new me: Invalid Link Removed

Thanks for the observations, everybody. We're doing our best...

Thanks,

Jonathan Herrera
Senior Editor
BASS PLAYER
 
#97
Jonathan-
Just curious...
Any reason why Gary Willis has never been a cover boy?
I recall an article (or maybe two) that detailed one of his albums...though I do not recall a full-blown feature. Seems odd that one of the important voices of our instrument has been left out there.

...and I like Chris Chaney's list of heroes in the Andrew Gouche issue (last page).
I'm assuming he wasn't able to edit his list. ;) That's what you get when start naming athletes, entertainers, musicians, etc. as your heroes.
 
#98
Jonathan,

I wish to thank you for providing the monthly respite from everyday life. I eagerly anticipate my monthly treks to the local drug store for the latest issue.

Shameless request: Any chance of an article on the legendary Canadian player Spyder Sinneave,(Streetheart, later Loverboy, Tom Cochrane). Back in the late 70s', ealy 80s' , I remember "shedding" to his solo during Streeheart's version of "Under My Thumb".

Either way, thanks to you and the staff at BP for providing a simple pleasure in life.

Respectfully,

Marc
 
#100
jaywa said:
Judging by the ads I've seen in BP the last year or so, I'd say the gear manufacturers are going hard after the black/death metal crowd in print and targeting other demographics via the Internet or other methods. I understand in these tough times that magazines have to take whatever advertising they can get, but since I'm totally not in that demographic I have found BP to be less relevant to me than it used to be.

I also understand BP can't just run the 28th feature on Geddy Lee or the 19th interview with Chris Squire but a lot of the guys they're profiling lately I can't really get into.

Not that I don't want BP to survive... I just won't be buying or subscribing, myself.
Click to expand...

I have noticed this also. I'm frankly not interested in black pointy ESPs and such. One good thing for me however, being a jazz player, is that almost every issue has a lesson or interview related to jazz or jazz bassists.
 

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