Tuesday, June 30, 2009

VIBE BITES THE DUST

According to this article in GAWKER Vibe Magazine—one of the biggest music magazines in America—is folding. The entire music magazine landscape is full of the dead and dying. Jeff Bercovici at Daily Finance with the scoop who wrote the article, added:

Wikipedia sums up Vibe unexpectedly well:

The magazine owes its success to having a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music or the rock & pop-centric Rolling Stone and Spin. It also differs from the more staid Essence, Ebony or Jet publications by attracting younger readers of many ethnicities.

It was essentially the black version of Rolling Stone, and its readership grew broader as hip hop became pop music. (Kind of fitting that their last issue had Eminem on the cover). But Vibe hasn't been doing well for a while now; in February, the magazine cut its circulation and frequency, and salaries. Now the music industry is crumbling, and the magazine industry is crumbling, and the music magazine industry is really crumbling.

The recent dead include Radio and Records, Performing Songwriter, and Blender. Vibe probably had the most demographically diverse readership of any major music magazine. Now, the hip hop magazine world is ruled by the shaky Source and XXL, with strong online competition; the trade music sector is still topped by Billboard, incredibly shaky as well; the pop music mag sector is ruled by Rolling Stone, which is a shell of its former self; and Spin, Fader, Paste, and everyone else are just trying to protect their own audiences from the free, and many times much better, online intruders. Hard times.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

LETTER FROM MC TROUBLEMAKER ASKING FANS TO "WORK IT OUT"

On May 22nd I headed to Nairobi, Kenya with HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere) for the experience of a lifetime. We were there to bring our artistic abilities and knowledge to the locals, share with them, and work with them. As part of the trip I DJed at the Sawa Sawa Festival, participated in interviews, taught kids about DJing and how to use Serato, as well as recorded music with Kenya's biggest hip hop emcee. In addition to donating my energy and time, I am offering an advance download from my upcoming album, The Maestro (out in July), to benefit the HOPE Campaign. The song is called "Work It Out," and it is very fitting to my journey, and is one of my favorites on the album. The donation price is set at a minimum of 60 cents and all the money goes to the HOPE Campaign (minus 10 cents to PayPal).

Please download it, enjoy it, and know that all the proceeds will go to incredible projects for the advancement of the arts in Kenya.

http://djtroublemaker.com/hope/


Thank you for your support,

tROUBLE