Electronic Musician goes all-digital

[David Emm]

The last print issue had a notice tucked in it that announced the change. I suppose it was inevitable, especially for a niche magazine whose charter can so rightfully make the leap. I'll miss the tactile pleasure of a new issue, but once Keyboard shrank well below its heyday thickness of 3/8" some months, the business made its path clear.

 

Now I'll have to warm myself with a copy of Mike Metlay's fine "Synth Gems 1." Great way to brown nose the boss: buy his book!
 
https://bjooks.com/products/synth-gems-1-exploring-vintage-synthesizers

[Jonathan Hughes]

This is a bummer. I've had a subscription forever. I read a ton online, but it's nice to have some things to read in physical format, even though EM had gotten pretty skimpy, and I don't really need any more articles on compressors or EQs. My subscription doesn't run out for several months, so I'll see what it's like, but it's unlikely I'll resubscribe, since the main thing I was subscribing for was an actual magazine.

[mauriziodececco]

I believed they were going to stop covering analog synths 😇

 

Maurizio

[jerrythek]

For me this is actually good news. Since they shut down the Keyboard and EM websites they never did anything with content from the new issues, and all the history was lost. For a year and a half I was writing my synth soloing column (The Art Of Synth Soloing) and it never got placed on the web - very frustrating. Now I can write columns that have added content, audio etc. and they will be easily supported. Plus they have been going back and re-using some of my older columns as articles on Music Radar. So there's a little bit of life coming back for my work. Is still not like it was in its prime, and likely will never be again. But the hungry man appreciates any scrap...

 

Jerry

[Stephen Fortner]

What does “all digital” mean in this case? As Jerry mentioned, the Keyboard and EM brands no longer have their own websites (everything redirects to MusicRadar). Will there be some kind of PDF-like digital edition of EM?

[jerrythek]

4 hours ago, Stephen Fortner said:

What does “all digital” mean in this case? As Jerry mentioned, the Keyboard and EM brands no longer have their own websites (everything redirects to MusicRadar). Will there be some kind of PDF-like digital edition of EM?

Yes, that's what they told me. Some sort of e-book form... so only available online.

 

Jerry

[Rod S]

Being outside of the US and Europe (or any other major hub), these changes are awesome for me. Tried once to subscribe to the print version of keyboard (circa 2007?) here in Brazil and it was disastrous, I got 2-3 out of the 12 issues and spent too much time arguing.  

 

Subscribe to the online SOS for a few years now, some rare glitches (asks me to repurchase), but I love having all the back issues since I started subscribing on my IPad to browse at any time, navigate quickly, zoom specific sections, take print screens to make notes on my online notebooks.   Yeah, I miss physical books and magazines, and physically writing in notebooks, but the convenience, organization is great.  

 

Kindle user since 2009, iPad owner since the 1st version, love have text books, articles, general books easily accessible across multiple devices.   Most books in English require special order, so ebooks and the like were a wonderful change.   English language magazines always overpriced, and subscriptions hit and miss.  

[David Emm]

I feel as if I have made some sort of odd sci-fi loop, where I now have to read from an iPad while enthroned on the bidet. I once slunk around with an issue or three of Keyboard and EM in my backpack, to be slowly chewed up by my Walkman and cassettes of the moment. Now its all on flash drives. I'd never use an iPad in public, though. Its just begging to have some demonic Keebler elf run by and grab it. At loosely $500 a pop and way more, they're far more lamentable to lose than a cassette.

 

I'll take EM as I can get it. Its evidence of unsound thinking to have Sound On Sound mailed to you in the U.S. Its a handsome magazine that weighs about half a Mellotron and it showed up at MY door looking like 2 mastiffs had it for lunch. Its not the first format to encounter the Change Or Die ogre. I can't properly quantify the immense gain I get from having pros and near-pros on here. Its often like adding water to Tang, poof, everything comes together. I'm grateful for that from every viable source, EM among them. 

Its not as if I won't be glued to it every month, just like you. 😏

[Stephen Fortner]

Rod S said,

Quote

Tried once to subscribe to the print version of keyboard (circa 2007?) here in Brazil and it was disastrous, I got 2-3 out of the 12 issues and spent too much time arguing.  

It still pains me to hear stories like this. I was tech editor then, and being the faces of the magazine, editors were constantly fielding legit complaints like this from readers, only to have our emails largely go unanswered by the corporate mothership. Circ outside the U.S. was a mess and only got worse after that because I think even then management wanted to kill off the print product by slow starvation.