Note to Acoustic Guitar magazine

[D-utim]

The Billy Strings feature by E.E. Bradman covers the yearly subscription cost.

[hamburg325]

Originally Posted by D-utim

The Billy Strings feature by E.E. Bradman covers the yearly subscription cost.

Meh. AG, as always, is extremely late to the party. He's been thoroughly covered everywhere else. Nothing new or particularly interesting in their feature.

[Mark Stone]

I haven't even seen an Acoustic Guitar Magazine in a decade at least. Guess I haven't missed much!

[Tycobb73]

Last thing I want in a magazine is a gear review. Let me summarize every year review in a magazine.

We don't want to annoy our advertisers so this $300 guitar is perfect, just like the $3000 guitar we reviewed last month.

[hamburg325]

Originally Posted by Tycobb73

Last thing I want in a magazine is a gear review. Let me summarize every year review in a magazine.

We don't want to pass off our advertisers so this $300 guitar is perfect, just like the $3000 guitar we reviewed last month.

Same thing with cars, watches, boats, audio, cigars. But other pubs manage to make the reviews colorful and entertaining. AG does not.

[Cameleye]

I used to call AG "Acoustic-Electric Singer-Songwriter Magazine".

[Sasquatchian]

I used to shoot a lot of photos for Acoustic Guitar back in the day. Lyle Lovett in the mid 90's. Tons of vintage guitars. Same for Frets, Guitar Player, Bass Player, Keyboard, Drums & Drumming and later Drum Magazine. I was even a board member and part owner of Drum, which was owned by two of the guys from Frets and GPI. All of them started going downhill around twenty years ago. That's back when a good cover shoot with someone like George Harrison (Guitar Player) or Keith Emerson (Keyboard Mag) Bonnie Raitt and Willie Dixon for Frets, or dozens and dozens of other could easily net you between six and eight grand. Around that time I knew things were dire because all of a sudden they slashed the photo budgets - first by a little and not too soon after, by a lot. I actually don't know if they even send photographers out on assignment anymore. I'm thinking that more often than not, the artist pays for the photo shoot and the whole thing becomes PR for them.

You'd have to be blind to not see their ad revenue drop simply by the paucity of ads all through the publications - and ad revenue is where they made the build of their money. And when that money stopped rolling in, they hired lesser writers and student photographers and all of that led to pretty mediocre magazines that fewer people wanted to buy and read and even fewer companies wanted to advertise in.

I used to be a long time subscriber to Rolling Stone - several decades worth, but in the last decade their focus has shifted dramatically and their political writers are not what they once were. Well, let's face it, NO one can be Hunter Thompson. RS went through a couple of design and editorial changes and Jann Wenner's son was put in charge of the online publication. The thing that annoyed me off about them is that I was paying a subscription for the hard copy paper, delivered to your door edition, but they wanted ANOTHER subscription to access the same material on their website. Talk about making you feel loved. Uh, uh. What an insult. They lost my business, plus the last thing I want to see are flash on camera photos of Miley's breasts.

I guess I should dig up some of those photos I shot for AG and post them here, but the posting requirements are so restrictive that it's hardly worth it.

[89bruin]

Agree, let my subscription lapse after coming to the disappointing realization it wasn’t worth the effort to even pick AG up, much less continuing to pay for it.

[Doug Young]

As someone who occasionally free-lance writes for AG, I 'll try to avoid taking any position on this (tho I'll gladly apologize if you've found any of my articles boring), but I'd suggest a few things:

1. You seem to be aiming this at David Lusterman, the publisher. I doubt he reads AGF. I'd suggest mailing it to him directly. Let me know if you can't find his email.

2. I'd be more specific about what you are suggesting. If I was David, I'd have little idea how to actually act on your comments. Suggest actual articles you want written. What gear has not been covered? What artists are being neglected? Keep in mind that some of your suggestions reflect your interests, and that others may feel differently. For example, I'd be happy if I never read another gear review. But having your vote for more gear reviews would be good for AG to hear. They have done reader polls on that sort of thing now and then, so be sure to get your vote in.

As far as writing style, etc, I think it'd help to make your critique more concrete. Consider taking any article you find not to your taste and editing it - mark it up, request changes, rewrite it, whatever - basically act like an editor, and show them what the article should have been. If you'd like, I'd be happy to have you take a crack at one of mine, I'd love to have the feedback. Make it more exciting. I won't be offended. I'll send you an article to work with if you'd like, I'd love to see your improvements.

Or better yet, write the article you dream of yourself and submit it to them for publication. If you need connected to the right people there, I'm happy to introduce you.

3. And finally, frankly, it's rare for someone to have a clear vision of what they want. You seem to have one - you know what you want. Consider creating your own magazine to give the world what it deserves. It's never been easier to publish, both online and in print. You could have an online magazine launched tonight! You could have a print magazine for sale on Amazon by tomorrow evening, Friday tops, with world-wide distribution, at zero cost to you as far as publishing, printing and so on. If you create a better magazine and there is demand for your vision, people should beat a path to your door. You don't have to convince David Lusterman to change, you can be the writer, or be the publisher/editor, lining up people who write in ways you find enthralling and create the ideal magazine for acoustic guitar. Even doing just a few issues would give you something you could send to the folks at AG and say, "here's what you should be publishing". If you can show them that you're successful, they might well agree.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by hamburg325

...

• Your content is consistently—month after month, year after year—underwhelming. Among other problems, you load each issue with highly ignorable instructional stuff. Despite what your research might say, I doubt that many serious players engage with this Mel Bay-type material. The web teems with energetic guitar pedagogy of every variety. Why waste your precious pages with this ploddingly dull content?

• Instead, you should devote many more pages to artist features and gear and music reviews. Especially gear reviews. From time immemorial, you have paid only scant attention to what guitar players are most enraptured with: the gear itself. Yet, when you do review gear, it is in the mildest and most simpering manner. Never saying anything even slightly opinionated or (heaven forbid) critical; always maintaining the most bleached and non-threatening editorial voice. But that's not what enthusiasts want.

• On the matter of your editorial voice: it is indeed bleached and anonymous, devoid of any flavor or attitude. Curiously, you've never learned from other enthusiast publications (audio, cars, watches, etc.) that readers want a strong editorial voice and authorial point of view. Have you never gazed upon The Absolute Sound or Stereophile? Personalities abound. Opinions fly. Readers are enthralled.

• Coupled with your missing editorial voice is a bland and flavorless graphic design. Your magazine looks like it's dedicated to the dental supply industry rather than one of the most richly artisanal and historical fields of musical endeavor.

• Finally, I know the rotating cast of editors is likely not to blame for this state of affairs. Rather, the long-time owner and publisher has given AG its stamp of insipidness from day one. I'm sure editors and others have tried to inject life into this ghost of a magazine. But what I see, month after month, remains steadfastly safe and dull...

Pretty much why I cancelled my subscriptions to both AG and GP over fifteen years ago...

[Blackmore Fan]

I loosely subscribe to Guitar Player magazine...or something similar--I never bothered to memorize the name. By loosely subscribe, I mean friends toss me every other issue or so, and I tend the buy the ones in between. To me the "gear reviews" are virtually worthless. They ALL are more or less endorsements of whatever it is they review.

I'm still waiting for the FIRST review that says the equivalent of "This piece of gear is terrible and/or over-priced."

[hamburg325]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

As someone who occasionally free-lance writes for AG, I 'll try to avoid taking any position on this (tho I'll gladly apologize if you've found any of my articles boring), but I'd suggest a few things:

1. You seem to be aiming this at David Lusterman, the publisher. I doubt he reads AGF. I'd suggest mailing it to him directly. Let me know if you can't find his email.

2. I'd be more specific about what you are suggesting. If I was David, I'd have little idea how to actually act on your comments. Suggest actual articles you want written. What gear has not been covered? What artists are being neglected? Keep in mind that some of your suggestions reflect your interests, and that others may feel differently. For example, I'd be happy if I never read another gear review. But having your vote for more gear reviews would be good for AG to hear. They have done reader polls on that sort of thing now and then, so be sure to get your vote in.

As far as writing style, etc, I think it'd help to make your critique more concrete. Consider taking any article you find not to your taste and editing it - mark it up, request changes, rewrite it, whatever - basically act like an editor, and show them what the article should have been. If you'd like, I'd be happy to have you take a crack at one of mine, I'd love to have the feedback. Make it more exciting. I won't be offended. I'll send you an article to work with if you'd like, I'd love to see your improvements.

Or better yet, write the article you dream of yourself and submit it to them for publication. If you need connected to the right people there, I'm happy to introduce you.

3. And finally, frankly, it's rare for someone to have a clear vision of what they want. You seem to have one - you know what you want. Consider creating your own magazine to give the world what it deserves. It's never been easier to publish, both online and in print. You could have an online magazine launched tonight! You could have a print magazine for sale on Amazon by tomorrow evening, Friday tops, with world-wide distribution, at zero cost to you as far as publishing, printing and so on. If you create a better magazine and there is demand for your vision, people should beat a path to your door. You don't have to convince David Lusterman to change, you can be the writer, or be the publisher/editor, lining up people who write in ways you find enthralling and create the ideal magazine for acoustic guitar. Even doing just a few issues would give you something you could send to the folks at AG and say, "here's what you should be publishing". If you can show them that you're successful, they might well agree.

Doug, I myself have always appreciated your writing and especially your playing. Both of the highest caliber.

I did send my note to the AG editorial email address. I couldn't locate an address for Lusterman, other than his LinkedIn one. I somehow doubt he'd care about my comments anyway.

Yes, I suppose I could create a guitar magazine that has verve and personality, and that embodies at least a small degree of the craft and style we find in the instruments we love and play.

Maybe I'll do just that. Jason Verlinde: here I come.

But, until then, I'll keep enjoying the occasional (but always tasty) Fretboard Journal. And I'll keep ponying up for AG, as I have for eons, hoping that they'll somehow live up to the promise that always eludes them.

[StringMeUp]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

I switched over to a digital subscription years ago and do like the short video lessons and artist interviews by a number of contributors. Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers being one of my favorites.
One thing that I have noted recently when I get my email blurbs from AG with links to articles that it now reminds people that they can give a donation. I am researching this further as I always thought that they were a business as opposed to a nonprofit.
I guess that folks have to get creative these days to stay afloat. I also get the digital version of Fretboard Journal. Paper magazines just end up in a pile and eventually the recycle bin along with the junk mail that supposedly keeps the post office up and running.
Best,
Jayne

Jayne do you get yours on an iPad?

The app seems to be all messed up. I keep getting a message I need to connect to the internet even though I have an internet connection. My subscription expires in May, but I have not been able to access the digital version in months. Has anybody else experienced this?

[TBman]

Every once in a while I will renew my subscription to AG. I just recently let it lapse.

There seems to be enough music in it to appeal to different players. I'd often see finger style, flat picking, blues, etc.

I like the glossy pictures of guitars. I have a thing about guitar porn.

I like reading reviews about gear I have no use for, but I like to read the reviews any way.

Do I think it could be a little more hardcore with in depth articles on composition, theory, finger style/flatpicking speed drills, triads and their construction, moveable chords? Sure, but that's all on the 'net too.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to have different sections that appear in each issue; a section each of flat picking, strumming, finger style, blues, alternate tunings, theory, beginners, singer-song writers, classical, composition, etc. I think that would attract a broader range of players and keep people coming back.

[phavriluk]

I gave up on AG when Dana Bourgeois' colum disappeared - - - can't expect it to last forever. And subscriptions' cost exceeded the value of the content. And then the content was cut in half...

I felt like a sucker paying full price for a renewal subscription.

I think the magazine priced itself out of the readers' sense of value received. And if advertising turned the lights on, why a prohibitive subscription price?