JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Performing Songwriter

Yeah.. it's weird to see all these folks who have been around and in many case either got their start around the same time as JPF or shortly before or after sort of disappear off the landscape. I can remember meeting with them when they were still tiny (as were we) and talking about our plans and dreams and goals and it's sad to see them have to give it all up. There's only a small handful of folks still around that existed when I started JPF and most that started after us are also gone. We seem to just be getting our momentum right now and it's particularly bitter sweet when others who seemed so on top of the world fall by the wayside. But I guess that's simply life... at some point we ALL fall by the wayside.

The question is will anyone replace them? Or has their way of life and species basically become extinct? I know it's a tough world for publications of any type, but it seems like we still haven't see a true replacement for what a magazine is/was in our lives. Simply getting info on a screen is different than the relationship you have with a book or a magazine. Being able to take it with you and leave it on the subway or table or counter for someone else to check out when you are done was such a part of life for folks 30 and over.

I considered them the leader in publications in the music industry right now. Rolling Stone has been irrelevent for decades. The various instrument focused mags have changed a great deal as well. Even Billboard is a mere fraction of what it once was. Is the printed word a dying species, or can a smart entrepreneur figure out a way to ressurect it?

The Amazon Kindle is cool but still unsatisfying in many ways to that ability to take a book where there's no electricity to recharge it and no worries about breaking the machine or losing it.

Brian