I’m going to make a music magazine

If it’s right there in the title, then perhaps I’ll actually do it, right?

Here’s the deal: I’d like to make a new music magazine. I’ve got a concept, an aesthetic and a product in mind and now I need to start working towards actually executing those ideas. So, in addition to my other blog-writing about records, bands or stories in music that have really caught my attention, I’m going to try and keep a kid of dev blog going. I’d like to document my progress on the project, but I’d also like to keep myself accountable. What follows are a series of not-quite mission statements, rather a list of parameters I’d like to set for the project as it stands.

1) What it will be

1a) A print music magazine contained in a record jacket, printed as beautifully as funds will allow. I’d like to bring together the collectable aspects of indie magazines and vinyl records and produce a product that’s a great piece of print design, as well as a platform for quality writing.

1b) Each issue of the magazine will focus on a particular city’s live music scene, giving readers a state of play report, a snapshot perspective, through interviews with key players –promoters, marquee acts, profiles of the venues that keep the place alive. I’m not particular interested in publishing reviews (I don’t think the format will work with the publishing schedule — who wants to read a six month old review?) but I think there’s room for short reflective pieces on key releases. Each issue should have a major longform cover story that ties the rest of the issue together like The Dude’s rug.

2) Who will it be for

2a) Music lovers. Tinnitus sufferers. Red Stripe drinkers. Black band tee-wearers. The opinionated. The open-minded. Ticket website-obsessives.­ The type of person who puts magazine paper to their face to get a better feel of the paper quality. Anyone who gives a damn about the UK’s live music scene and wants to find a way of saving it. There’s an audience for a print title that caters to those types. I’ll return to this in more detail in future updates, but I don’t think there’s a question as to whether there’s an audience out there for this sort of thing.

3) What it won’t be

3a) I took away some pretty stinging criticism of indie mags from several speakers at the MagFest Q&A pre-event last week. Jeremy Leslie of MagCulture and Peter Houston (founder of Flipping Pages) were both pretty damning of some of the lower quality titles from that sector — the words “vanity publishing” were used — and obviously I’d like to avoid that, principally by producing something that adds to the conversation, brings something new to the table. Something that’s not crap.

3b) I’d also like to try, as much as possible, to keep my feet on the ground. I don’t wanna be like Quentin Tarantulino in Bojack Horseman, repeatedly deconstructing his project from a biopic into a bro-comedy, then an ‘immersive social media experience’, and finally, a fruit basket. It’s still going to have a spine and a colophon and a masthead. It’s still going to be a music magazine.

4) What it might be

4a) A collaboration. One of the things I’ve learnt from Counterpoint is how much fun collaborating with other writers, designers and photographers can be. And there are a couple of aspects of this project, particularly the visuals, where I might need help. Give me a shout if you’re interested.

4b) A one-shot edition.

4c) A pilot without a sequel.

4d) The start of a media and publishing empire the likes of which William Hearst could only have dreamt of. I want to produce this as the first issue of many, but whether I end up printing hundreds and shipping them out into the world, or just a handful for use in interviews, print exhibitions or my own satisfaction depends on cash and how much interest the project generates. I intend on building as much of the infrastructure necessary to get a second issue off the ground, even if that only ends up being an exercise in learning how to, for instance, set up a subscription service.

5) Why do I want to do this?

5a) I’m currently studying for an MSc in Magazine Publishing, and I’ll be finished in September. Whilst the course is great, the only project I could really show off in a portfolio is Buzz magazine, which involved 18 other students. So I’ll need something that’s verifiably mine.

5b) Counterpoint is a phenomenal project and I love doing it, but there are particular stories I want to cover as a journalist, and particular ways of covering those stories, that aren’t suitable for Counterpoint. In fact, I reckon those stories aren’t being told particularly well by the existing outlets that could investigate them.

5c) Furthermore one of the things we originally set out to do with Counterpoint, which ended up by the wayside, was to publish longform journalism. There are plenty of good reasons why this didn’t work out — it’s a bit cheeky to ask a contributing writer to give you 5000 words for free — and I’m not sure that readers want to read that many risographed words. I’d like to return to, and actually realise my ambition of self-publishing quality, longform writing.

5d) It’ll be loads of fun (my idea of fun is endless conversations about fonts).