Barnes and Noble . . .

[Notes_Norton]

1 hour ago, Wibbles said:

I much prefer physical copies of books and magazines.

For a start it's much easier to take them into the loo than sit there balancing my laptop on my knees. And they don't need batteries.

And you can put little pieces of paper between the pages for bookmarks.

And you can open them up to an article, keep your finger between a couple of other pages, and flip back and forth.

Plus I find print easier on the eyes, the blue light from the screens gets tiring when reading a long article.

But I see other advantages to e-mags too. Multimedia for one, although that gets abused. I'd often rather read at my own pace so my mind can drift off on associated thought from time to time. Depends on the content.

Notes

[jesse g]

I still subscribe to SOS magazine, it give me a warm fuzzy feeling when the magazine arrives in the mail.

[Wibbles]

Sound on Sound - I don't even understand the pictures, let alone the articles.

[Starise]

Well....................... At least we can still get a coffee in B&N. If there's a still a B&N in your area.

I was recently flying between states. Couldn't find a music mag in an airport to save my life. Figured I would visit a local mall with a book store. The one I visited had a magazine rack that went into next Tuesday. I figure FOR SURE they would have something. Nope.

The last Keyboard magazine I bought was 60% advertising filler. Not even good bathroom material!

I tried the sub route with SOS. Subscribed to their paper version for years. Something about holding that mag and flipping through it is a better experience than my iPad. The batteries never run down, don't need to hunt for a page with my finger. My right to see it will never go away.Must cost a fortune to mail a mag like SOS to the states from the UK.  I can see why it's going that way (digital). I don't need to like it.

[RobertWS]

22 hours ago, InstrEd said:

I have to admit I did stop some music magazines several years ago as they decided to go with a really small print and I couldn't read it.  

As I get older, I find ALL print media is using smaller and smaller print! 

[InstrEd]

28 minutes ago, RobertWS said:

As I get older, I find ALL print media is using smaller and smaller print! 

But I had the issue before the change to smaller print to compare it too. So when my subscription ended I never renewed. I might of thought it was me getting older  if I didn't check myself.  Another thing I hate is the translucent backgrounds that makes the print so hard to read. I wish I liked reading on a tablet but I don't.

[S.L.I.P.]

For myself  there are a lot of pros for reading books and magazines on my phone.  I've always have the phone, so if I'm stuck on a long supermarket line, I can take it out and read. I've read more books now with my phone, then I've ever read in my life, since it is always with me. I can make the font as big as I want it. Like RobertWS, I too find the print too small, and getting smaller in print media. And if the author says, "She looks like the forlorn woman in Edward Hoppers' painting Automat, 1927, I can search and immediately see the image of that painting.

[Notes_Norton]

Yes there are advantages of having your phone with you - google in your pocket.

I don't talk much on the phone, sometimes I go days without using the phone app on my phone. But I like google (actually Start Page) in my pocket, and if going to a new place, GPS. (There's another thing disappearing, paper maps.)

If waiting I might open a FlipBoard article but never anything long.

As the price of paper, ink, and postage goes up, many mags started accepting 'articles' submitted by people who have something to sell, and those articles are veiled advertisements for their products. I found fewer and fewer articles I wanted to read. The articles that are basically 'infomercials' rarely catch my eye.

I still read mags and sometimes the news on my tablet, while 'couch surfing' but it's not the same. But I'm using less paper and that means cutting down fewer trees. I wonder if the energy used in bringing the digits to my tablet is better or worse for our environment. I guess it doesn't matter because I'm typing here. ;)

Notes

[Brian Walton]

On 11/12/2019 at 10:23 AM, Starise said:

Well....................... At least we can still get a coffee in B&N. If there's a still a B&N in your area.

I was recently flying between states. Couldn't find a music mag in an airport to save my life. Figured I would visit a local mall with a book store. The one I visited had a magazine rack that went into next Tuesday. I figure FOR SURE they would have something. Nope.

The last Keyboard magazine I bought was 60% advertising filler. Not even good bathroom material!

I tried the sub route with SOS. Subscribed to their paper version for years. Something about holding that mag and flipping through it is a better experience than my iPad. The batteries never run down, don't need to hunt for a page with my finger. My right to see it will never go away.Must cost a fortune to mail a mag like SOS to the states from the UK.  I can see why it's going that way (digital). I don't need to like it.

I don't think you can walk more than 3 blocks without access to Coffee in any populated area in the US.  It is a little disturbing if you think about it.

[craigb]

[Jim Fogle]

If you're not familiar with it, you may want to check out the magazine, Tape Op.  The magazine is bi-monthly and is available in digital and print formats.  The print format is available only inside the US.

The magazine has a twenty plus year archive available but you don't have to purchase a subscription if you don't need archive access.  The basic subscription is free.

https://tapeop.com/subscriptions/

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Didn't Barnes & Noble get sold recently?   We might be seeing impact specifically in music periodicals but I'll bet there are similar niche periodicals that they're quietly losing or similar, if they are paring things down or somehow making changes/cuts to fit into the mold of their new overlords.

Personally I love reading printed magazines and books but hate dealing with magazines after I'm done with them.  IK has relationships with most if not all mentioned here, but my personal  opinion based on my interests lean toward TapeOp and Sound On Sound, with the occasional interest in CM.

[Notes_Norton]

When I'm done with a magazine, I pass it on for others to read.

Music mags go to other musicians, general mags get left in doctors or dentist offices, or whatever. None go into the bin.

Notes

[bitflipper]

Yes, they were sold to an investment company. Never a good sign.

[InstrEd]

8 hours ago, craigb said:

Drink coffee or else:

 

[craigb]

31 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Drink coffee or else:

 

Now THAT'S proper advertising! ?

[PhonoBrainer]

6 hours ago, Peter - IK Multimedia said:

. . .onships with most if not all mentioned here, but my personal  opinion based on my interests lean toward TapeOp and Sound On Sound, with the occasional interest in CM.

Yes these are my exact favorites as well. I always learn something new from that lot.

[Notes_Norton]

Starbucks has good coffee

So does Dunkin' Donuts -- which if you move the first letter of Dunkin to the end it turns into "Unkind Donuts (I have no idea what that occurred to me).

I little over a year ago I spent 5 weeks in Australia (in a camper van). In Oz they make coffee by first making expresso and then adding hot water and/or cream. It gives the coffee a slightly different but good flavor. But I had to learn new terms for ordering it - I preferred "Long Jack" which was the closest thing to American coffee, espresso with water and a bit of cream.

----

Back to Magazines.

Electronic Musician was sold to a UK company who put me back on their free subscription list, even though I don't advertise in it anymore (Thank you). It's still not the EM of days gone. Much of the focus in all music magazines today seems to be for recording vs. live performance.

When I record, I let the nice folks outside the fish bowl take care of all the technical things and I just play. But I don't record that much anymore, most of the studios around her went belly-up as home recording technology became affordable.

I gig for a living, and the only recording I need is to plug a half dozen or more synth modules into a mixer, make a backing track for my duo, and record it straight from the output of the mixer.

Playing music with my musician wife in front of an appreciative audience is the most fun I can have with my clothes on.

It's a good way to make a living.

Sorry for the tangent on the magazine thread.

[craigb]

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Sorry for the tangent on the magazine thread.

*Pfft!*  This IS the Coffee House you know!  ?

[Notes_Norton]

Mmm, I'm having a cup I just made. Unkind (Dunkin) Donuts coffee with a tablespoon of cocoa powder, some stevia and heavy whipping cream. Caffè mocha mocha mocha mocha mocha mocha mocha mocha mmmmmmmmmm good.