[sdiy] Audio (and synth) DIY printed magazine idea

[synth at charlielamm.com]

I like the CD idea...if there is money to pay for its production.

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Barry Klein wrote:

> 1. Concentrate on the advertising income (or lack of it?).  Lots of material
> to write about...
> Maybe model "TapeOP" magazine and approach his advertisers.
> 2. Include a CD each issue with sounds of the circuits and/or reader
> submissions.
>
> Barry
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of
> synth at charlielamm.com
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 8:11 AM
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: [sdiy] Audio (and synth) DIY printed magazine idea
>
>
> I come from a family of non-fiction writers and we are constantly bouncing
> ideas off each other for books and magazines that might do a little better
> than break-even (sometime break-even is OK too).
>
> My latest idea is to have a magazine called something like "Audio DIY".
> It would be in English, and come out monthly or bimonthly, and hopefully
> sell to an International audience.
>
> It would cover what I see to be the 4 "thrusts" of the audio DIY biz as I
> see it on the web and usenet
>
> --Synth DIY
> --Stomp DIY
> --Amp DIY
> --Software DIY (Reaktor, Nord modular, roll your own plug ins, etc)
>
> My brothers and father don't know anything about this "hobby" or "passion"
> or whatever you'd like to call it, so they couldn't gauge if it would get
> enough interest to survive or not (to break even, the average "special
> interest" publication must see about 30K subscribers annually, more if
> potential advertisers stay away).  That's why I am posting this here.
>
> So, what does the group think?  Is there a 30K+ subscriber base,
> worldwide, at say $20USD per year market for this (or am I preaching to
> the choir?)  Has it been tried before?  Is it being done now, and I just
> have never seen it at the newsstands?  Is this a silly question to ask of
> this group?
>
> Some details, of course all to be revised and ironed out.
>
> My idea would be to have this represent all levels of this odd passion of
> ours, from in depth Magnus-style filter math porn, to "how to get started
> building a fatman".  My feeling is that the menches read everything, even
> if it's remedial, and the beginners read everything too, they just don't
> understand most of it, but hope someday they will.
>
> In general I'd slant it more for the beginner/intermediate than the mench,
> mostly to gain subscriber base, but, that's up for discussion.
>
> As an advertising base I guess you'd try to get the parts suppliers on
> line, as well as some music software mfgr's.  But in general I feel this
> potential publication doesn't have the advertising potential of say
> "Electronic Musician" or something...since someone like Roland has little
> reason to advertise in it....and maybe since that keeps things a bit less
> commercial (as I'm sure many of you know, at least a few of the music
> publications say everything audio tech is great, even if it's not, to keep
> the advertiser bucks flowing) it might be for the best.
>
> And there's the rub.  Without a strong advertiser base, some publication
> die before they are born.
>
> But it'd be a hell of a fun publication to produce.  I'd certainly
> subscribe to it.  And it might become a good little business, provided you
> could keep enough people subscribing.
>
> Some of the start up ideas:
>
> --A basement publication, hand stapled and addressed, along the lines
> of how a specialty publication like "Hemmings Motor News" got started.
>
> --A spin off of an existing publication.  I guess I'd have to put on a
> suit and go around with my hat in my hands!
>
> --An angel investor (anyone know any?)
>
> --An internet magazine (problematic, since no one will ever want to pay a
> dime for the publication once they can get it free).
>
>
> Comments?
>