TRACKS Magazine Place on Hiatus

guess he's never heard of mojo.

otherwise: yawn.

ok so 2 of the 3 people I know who wrote for Tracks are over 30 (I didn't actually think the entire staff was under the focus audience age or anything). It's just funny.

Starbucks: For real!

I'll be surprised if Tracks returns. If if does, Alan Light would be wise to open his ears to some outside perspective. The current mission statement was not alluring to enough potential readers. Plus, I'm convinced that trying to target music fans by age often is a useless endeavor. If you're just trying to sell ads to skateboard companies and get kids to buy glossy photos of their favorite crap bands, you can do that. Revolver and AP have proven that. But otherwise, it's becoming more complicated every day.

Whatever the case, best of luck to Tracks. I appreciate what it was trying to do. It just wasn't very appealing.

oh yeah where I say over I mean 2 under 30.

wait, what about rolling stone? is the average age of the rolling stone reader 20-something even though they have 50-something content?

but it doesn't address the issues of how boring tracks is/was. and how utterly lacking a sense of humor it is/was. they had some damn good writers who wrote some very readable pieces on some blindingly obvious topics. except for the monthly photo essay, which was often great, there was nothing entertaining about that magazine, ever. reverent, yes. entertaining, no.

also they sent me waaaaay too many pieces of mail trying to get me to resubscribe after my first year sub ran out. they could've saved themselves some money, and some trees, right there.

It's definitely a leaner operation with a smaller subscription base, and I actually prefer that. They've zeroed in on the growing AAA/Americana/"Hear Music"/adult alternative + compatible indie rock audience, and they seem more focused than Tracks was (though I haven't read much of Tracks). Paste is also showing growth, with the online store, the promo DVDs and CDs, and plans to go monthly soon.

It is even more bland.

I'll just leave that as "eye of the beholder" - I wouldn't normally have written for a magazine in that space, but the editors are terrific and they cover what they cover very well. I have some (30+ old) friends who love AAA radio and listen to stations like Phillie's WXPN, and when they flipped through a recent issue of Paste, they just kept saying, "These are all artists I love." Which suggests that they know what they're doing.

If not could it expand to fill the gap which Tracks has left, taking a more American flavour to the brand? Much like Maxim did following the collapse in sales of the 'top shelf' magazines back in the 90's.

I also recently found out they're a magazine writing about music from a "Christian" prospective. According to people I’ve talked to and information that's been going around, they've been known to turn down pieces on lesser known artists that have more “liberal” views. They also won’t print any profanity. Not that that’s a horrible thing – just goes along with the pretentious and humorless comment above. A large number of their writers also write for Christianity Today Magazine and Jeffrey Overstreet, one of their film reviewers, is another big contributor to Christianity Today and other online Christian mags. He's written articles about "cleaning up Hollywood" and "producing films from a more "Christian perspective". I met another writer of there's in San Francisco a couple weeks ago who boasted about how the staff is Christian and the magazine is written from that perspective. I really felt like the guy was a slime. The whole thing just doesn’t sit right with me.

BTW, I’ve picked up issues of No Depression and Harp in airports before. They are there, just not in big numbers like Tracks.

Mark

This isn't really about having an "all Christianity is bad" reaction. I do know they have ties to some very controversial evangelists and Rev. Joe Kirk - one of the owners of the magazine is an outspoken christian pro-lifer. He claims he only wants to "save the children" but I think there's more to it than that.

Finally, we'd like to offer a shout-out (ie. "fuck you") to the cowards and thought-cops in the Ad Dept at Paste Magazine who have deemed our proposed advertisement for 'Face The Truth' to be beyond the bounds of "good taste." God forbid that anything might challenge the sensibilities of Paste's Yep Roc-loving, Starbucks-guzzling, Wes Anderson-worshipping readership. Seriously, if there's anything we or SM have done that is a poor fit with Paste's Ad Dept's narrow worldview, that is the highest compliment we've been paid since the last time Spin refused to run one of our ads.

The precise ad is reproduced here (you saw an alternative version of it as a poster, in the last news update):

ihttp://www.matadorrecords.com/images/news/sm_paste_ad.jpg

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/print/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000962174

Paste Buys Tracks' Subs
June 15, 2005
By Stephanie D. Smith

Atlanta-based music magazine Paste announced today that it will acquire the subscriber base of the defunct Tracks. The move will triple Paste's subscriptions from 15,000 to 50,000, and will now guarantee advertisers a circulation of 120,000.

Paste's August/September issue will be the first to be received by Tracks subscribers. Tracks, launched by former Vibe/Spin Ventures executives John Rollins and Alan Light in December 2003, folded in April after the magazine ran out of funding.

“We’ve admired Tracks since they launched in 2003. Like Paste, Tracks focused on the music, rather than the over-the-top celebrity 'news' with which we are constantly inundated," said Nick Purdy, Paste publisher. "Our readership has a lot in common with Tracks'. They are selective taste-makers in tune with popular culture - they're fans of Coldplay, The White Stripes, and Aimee Mann, they own the Garden State DVD - but they also want to know what's just under the radar."

Paste is an independent bimonthly magazine that covers underground as well as mainstream music, films, and pop culture for 18- to 49-year-olds. The three-year-old title polybags a CD of new music with every issue and mails a DVD sampler with movie trailers and music videos to subscribers. Paste also has a weekly "Paste Picks" segment, where Paste's editors discuss new music and movies, that airs Tuesdays on CNN Headline News.

in this month's Paste, members of Slipknot discuss various retirement fund options!