JasonShadrick

As Director of Marketing and Artist Relations for NGW, it is my job to keep tabs on what are in the latest guitar magazines, and what guitarists are receiving the most attention.  We advertise in all the major mainstream publications, and several niche magazines. It is interesting to me how the guitar magazines (which aren’t huge publications in the grand scheme of the magazine industry) are effected by the current economic conditions.

In speaking with our students at several campuses, I found out that younger students lean more towards Guitar World and adult students are split between Guitar Player, Premier Guitar and Fretboard Journal (which is an AMAZING new magazine).  Acoustic Guitar Magazine seems to be split fairly evenly among the age demographics among the students I talked to.

This year we had 8 page spreads in both Guitar Player and Premier Guitar.  As far as I know, no company in recent memory has had such a large presence in a single issue.  Both PG and GP have considerably different circulations and even target audiences.  I respect Premier Guitar for their focus on a missing aspect in the mainstream guitar media.  They focus largely on gear with some educational content.  Most of their covers feature some type of gear.  Outside of Vintage Guitar Magazine (which has a smaller circulation, I believe) they have the most gear coverage than either Guitar Player or Guitar World.

How does the coverage that these magazines give to products or artists translate into popularity?

I can honestly say that if I wasn’t for my job, I would probably rarely read these magazines unless there was something very specific I was looking for.  For products such as guitars and amps, it would be relatively easy to see if an increase in press coverage equals more sales of that particular product.  For artists, it’s much more abstract.

If you read about a particular artist in the magazine, does that motivate you to either buy a CD or go to a show?

Obviously who is on the cover is very important to the magazines.  How many times have you seen Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, or Eddie Van Halen on the cover? Trust me, it isn’t because they have something new to cover (for the most part).

My opinion is that there isn’t a single magazine that is representative of guitarists as a whole.  Each magazine has it’s own niche and that is great. 

What are your opinions are the current guitar magazines?

Original cutting edge music for large ensembles in a jazz context has been in short supply lately.  Of course you have Maria Schneider’s music, but as great as it is Maria’s music lacks that inner fire for me.

Darcy is a very well respected composer who comes from the Brookmeyer School (He studied with Brookmeyer while at NEC).  He is the leader of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, one of the most original large jazz ensembles to come around in recent memory.

Recently, Darcy released “Infernal Machines”, the debut studio recording from the Secret Society (purchase it here).

Not only did this interest me because of my interest in his music, but Darcy was very open about the deal with New Amsterdam Records.  The terms of the contract are very artist friendly:

• The artist retains full copyright of the recording
• Proceeds from the album are split 80% Artist and 20% Label until the recording cost are recouped. After that it becomes a 50/50 split.

You can read the whole agreement here.

However there are some downsides, such as no advance.  All costs related to the recording of the album are 100% on the artist.  To me, this could be a glimpse into the future of the recording industry.  As most of you know by now, the traditional artist/label relationship doesn’t exist as we know it.  In order to make the music industry more viable, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the business of making music, and I think NA Records and Darcy are going in the right direction.

Please check out/buy a copy of Darcy’s new album.  For those of you who feel big band jazz is all about Glen Miller and Count Basie, then you NEED to buy it.

I know by just reading the title of this post, many of you will have a preconcieved notion of what to expect.  Even I had to admit that I thought I knew what John Zorn was all about.

That is until I read the excellent JazzTimes cover story on Zorn written by Bill Milkowski.  This is easily one of the best interviews I have ever read.  I first heard Zorn’s Naked City album while an undergrad and at the time I was not ready for it (who really is?) but it was interesting to me because it featured one of my favorite guitarists, Bill Frisell.  It was like a bunch of jazz nerds got together and made an amazing heavy metal/hardcore album.  Since I was a metalhead back in the day, that was my “gateway drug” into the world of John Zorn.

With some casual searching on the web it is easy to see that Zorn is arguably one of the most prolific and diverse musicians EVER.  Who else could write an album of string quartets like Magick (2004) develop a unique sound like the aformentioned Naked City project in addition to leading a longstanding quartet (Masada) that performs traditional sacred Jewish music in a jazz context?

His skills as a composer and musician are well documented, but after reading this interview it totally dawned on me that Zorn is also an amazing entrepreneur and a leading advocate of artistic expression.

For example, consider the following:

• Since 1995, he has been the driving force behind Tzadik, a record label that although small is easily doing better than any of the major labels.
• He recently opened a non-profit music venue, The Stone, in the East Village in New York City.  As per the website:
  • All expenses are paid for by the MUSIC itself – through the online sale of special Limited Edition CDs released yearly on the Tzadik label. Each month a different musician is responsible for curating the programs with 100% of the nightly revenue going directly to the musicians.

To me, this should be the model for every music venue in the world.   For the last 35 years Zorn has been relentless in his approach, drive and vision.  His music might not reach everyone, but musicians and businessmen alike should look to him as a model of where the music industry is heading.  I hope that both Gary Vaynerchuk and Bob Lefsetz are paying attention to artists like Zorn, because I assure you he isn’t the least bit interested in what they (or you) are doing.

Here is a follow up video to yesterday’s post.