Much-praised music magazine Plan B - one of the two post-Careless Talk Costs Lives magazines, the other being the quarterly Loose Lips Sink Ships - is to switch from publication every two months to once a month in an attempt to take on the more mainstream titles littering newsagent shelves.
Everett True - Plan B founder, author of Live Through This and former contributor to Melody Maker - spoke to Press Gazette about the magazine's move, which was prompted by a number of editorial position applications True recently received...
"Our applicants seem to perceive a massive gap on music coverage in this country - that you've got NME and Q, which aren't really perceived as having much to do with music at all, which are just gossip magazines to shift papers and make their publishers rich. Obviously we're not as popular or as well-known as those other titles at the moment, but that's what we're aiming to be by going monthly."
As for his magazine's nearest rival (according to the Gazette, anyway), the similarly independently owned Word magazine, True commented:
"Word is put together by 50- and 60-year-olds for other 50- and 60-year-olds, and I don't quite see what relevance that has to do with what we've got. That's not to slag the magazine off - they do what they do and that's fine - but it's not the place to discover new bands, not even remotely."
DiScuss: Personally, while this move is a bold one on Plan B's part, I can't help but see it now going the way of Careless Talk, as from this point of view there simply enough of a demand for such a monthly magazine. The why: websites like this one, Stylus, Pitchfork, Coke Machine Glow, New Noise, playlouder, et cetera... new music is best exposed by new media. I'm of the opinion that magazines shouldn't be looking to discover, to break bands, but to build them up from the foundations laid by DiS, et al. By taking the stance that they're an outlet for brand-new acts, almost exclusively, Plan B might be shooting themselves in the proverbial foot. That said, the last thing I want, really, is for Plan B to disappear, so fingers crossed.
Maybe
But I'd quite like a proper monthly magazine that did the same job. I've liked LLSS whenever I've read it and I might buy this now that it's gone monthly.
re
Pretentious and self indulgent are definately the words for the writing...which is a shame cos the bands they cover are good, it's just a shame you end up finding out nothing about them. Still, the pictures are good.
Agree
exactly true.
...
this is a good thing, plan b covers pretty much anything and i'm always quite impressed by the writing.
...
i also think there is room for this magazine to flourish, many people cant be arsed to spend time looking at the net all day so the only way to find new stuff is in places like this, it also covers other things aside from music.
^^true^^
i always wonder
if Everett True is a real name or a nom de plume?
tis indeed a pseudonym
Right.
Anything that tries to subvert NME and Q is good game. I mean, I pick up and read (yes!) ARTROCKER for fucksssssakes.
This is good
I love reading plan b and it expanding can only mean good things. Also its moving into whsmiths which means it'll be more accessible. At the moment i only grab it when i can from sheffield because they don't sell it near me. Also im looking forward to it being monthly.
Yeah, Good Luck to 'em.
Even though I think that they are going to lose their money on this.
I bought my first
Plan B a couple of weeks ago, it lived in my bag for a couple of weeks because it was one of the only magazines i've ever found where i can discover something interesting to read on any page. So i can pull it out of my bag for 10 mins here and there and read something good.
I find Plan B
to be very hard-going and uninformative.
The music reviews seem to be composed by writers who love to write whatever comes into their heads and reads nicely rather than tackling the sounds they are meant to actually be reviewing.
Pretensious and unsatisfying are 2 words I'd use to describe that magazine. Saying that I do glance at it when my missus buys it.
I tend to stick with Drowned in Sound and Pitchfork for most of my new music recommendations.
I agree with
the majority of what the captain said above.
I wanted to like it, and there is a place for this magazine...just with a few differences. If it were good enough, I'd buy it.
Its a deeply frustrating magazine
because they cover areas of music and groups that you're either already a fan of or are interested in finding out more about, but the writing more often than not comes across as snobbish, condescending and/or ultimately unhelpful/unsatisfying.
But you want to like it out of principle, so its worth a go every now and then.
Still, its infintely better than artrocker, which is quite literally the worst magazine ever.
I can't remember
The last time i used a magazine for new bands, its online all the way or demo based for me.
I use magazines for exactly what usa_nails has said below me.
Or for seeing who's touring using which agent and label etc from the adverts.
I agree
it's pretty hard-going and I could never read it all in one go. The majority of the reviews and features don't hold my interest long enough, as they have a tendecency towards being written with a high degree of pretention. The pictures are always pretty, though! And for every few boring articles, there's a fantastic one.
Good luck to them, and I'll be buying this months because it looks like it might be good.
err
pretentious and unsatisfying are the two words I would associate with Pitchfork. It's fine for US groups, but its stuff on UK bands is atrocious.
.
wire magazine is monthly and it is always worth it. i only check DiS & Pitchfork etc when I'm on the net, I don't go on the net specifically to read DiS. But I'll go into a shop specifically to pick up the new Wire Magazine.
Good luck to Plan B!
Never really been a huge fan of Plan B...
...for me it's all about Artrocker and Disorder.
No idea if I'm in the minority there though...
Clash magazine
Should go monthly too. I like that magazine
Blowing a bum note on your own trumpet
"new music is best exposed by new media. I'm of the opinion that magazines shouldn't be looking to discover, to break bands, but to build them up from the foundations laid by DiS, et al."
Without doubt that is the most ridiculous comment you have made ever.
The future of music magazines in general is in doubt due to the availability of free web-magazines, but your assertion that the internet is necessarily the medium for "breaking" "new" bands, and that magazines are not, is without substance. Such an assertion demonstrates your prejudices regarding people who are likely to be interested in "new" music. It is an assertion that is informed by modern assumptions within journalism and the media about the general public. There is no reason whatsoever why someone interested in finding "new" bands would be more likely to look at the internet for information than someone who wants to read about, say, U2.
Have you chosen to categorise people who are fans of interesting new music into a demographic. Are the members of this demographic eshewing the printed media? People in general are increasingly moving from print to webpage for information, but that is a general shift; it is not dependent on a demographic into which media types like you have put these people. What assumptions are you making about people who are likely to be interested in new music? Are you making assumptions about age? Are you making assumptions about income?
Your ridiculous assumptions, no doubt borne from a typical detachment from reality that is intrinsic to journalism, scream their absurdity loudly due to the fact that DiS is less of a source of information about new artists than Plan B - excluding the public forums. DiS is much closer to the NME than it is to Plan B. You claim that DiS lays the foundations of interest in new bands and that magazines as Plan B should then build upon that. If that were accurate, Plan B would be a very slim magazine. If you are sincere about your statement that a website like DiS is at the forefront of building an interest in new music that you are very deluded.
i
kinda agree alot with the last part of your statement...
i think what you meant is
People use the internet for what they know and slowly build a trust which leads to discovery. which is what has happened with magazines and individual journalists over the past few decades and still does, to some respects.
What is easier in print than online is to put your balls on the line and dedicate 5 pages to a new act like Dazed & Confused did which made a lot of people wake up to The Darkness. What is easier online than in print is to write about everything and say you've covered it and supported it because the breadth of coverage is limitless. What's easier online is to come home from an amazing gig and post a review the next day saying that it was amazing and why and the next night of the tour someone who clicked to find out more about the band goes and checks out the band and agrees.
Plan B is much more focussed in what it is and where it's placed than DiS and has decades of experience. We're both essentially more like fanzines than traditional press because we're run by fans of music to give an outlet for the music we love, rather than building up a brand name relevant to a target market readership and advertisers to fascilitate the needs of major record companies and publishing houses.
Plan B
Is like the old DiS. the new DiS is far more insular than Plan B has ever been, and I find much more 'new' bands in Plan B than DiS ever presents to the readers these days.
I think Diver's statement was incredibly out of order and was a smoking gun of delusions of grandeur.
I'd disagree...
...but then of course I would ;o)
My comments were intended to provoke dicussion, and I'm happy that they have. Magazines like Plan B have an important part to play in the music business' bigger picture - and whatever you say about the acts they choose to focus on being beyond any mainstream, for-money loop, it's all business at the end of the particualr campaign - and I'd be genuinely saddened if it were to close as a result of this not-wholly-necessary move.
Fingers crossed. As for delusions of granduer, I don't know... DiS is the biggest website of its kind, and we've the 'power' to promote/sing the praises of/slag off any acts we like. We don't build acts up and knock them down, we don't pander to advertisers needs (the front page band is not there cos their label's paid for a back-cover ad), and I don't see the site as being insular. Websites - swifty-updated information and reviews that aren't written to appease a specific audience - should be where people turn to for new music matters. Initially, at least. I know it's what I do, and then I look to magazines to offer me greater depth of insight - I want magazine reviews to explore the facets we can't reach, as there's no way you can really run a 3,500-word article here, whereas in a magazine, no problem (some of Plan B's layouts make it a problem, mind).
Then again, I could be wrong. Often am.
I like magazines.
length
for the same token, we can give a small record a lot more time to be dissected and made sense of, rather than 10 to 100 words like a lot of mags when they skim over something and because of that dont give the record much time and can miss things and not do great things justice.
OK...
Far from it from someone to second-guess our motives on a messageboard and get them right, but yes you're correct: this is massively wrongheaded. Plan B has gone monthly for a number of reasons, primarily - yes - because we always planned and wanted to be monthly but never had the cash flow to do so in the early days. Secondly - and because we are selling better than we ever have done before, not the other way around - it became unfeasible to put the magazine out as a bimonthly forever: for the core team, it was on the cusp of doing something full-time and doing it as an enormously consuming part-time job, and something had to give. We decided to go monthly, increase the distribution to include WH Smiths, and even set up a long-overdue office, rather than shut the magazine at some vague point in the future.
As for the motives editorially, I think there's unfortunately been something lost in translation in the PG interview: yes of course we're a "younger" magazine than Word (although not to the extent that Everett suggests), we're just trying to be the first place in print to turn to for smart, funny, playful writing about exciting new *music* (and the culture that surrounds it), not *just* new bands; and that's music that's new to you, whether it's 30 years old or hot off the press. Whether that's exciting guitar bands - or 70s folk music, German techno, or political hiphop from Oakland, all of which you can read about in the most recent issue. Again, that's going to be something easier to represent as a monthly - our pagination has gone up about 40% since we've started and there's still nowhere near the space to cover everything we want to cover in the depth and detail it deserves, or indeed ever be entirely content with our output over the last two years. We're looking forward. That's the way it should be.
cheers tho
for helping break the Kaiser Chiefs
but
yes I do accept that we now do cover less new bands but now the focus is on the best and most interesting new bands (see: Adam Gnade, Howling Bells, Guillemots, etc..).
Just being supportive in a happy clappy atleast-they're-trying kinda way just waters down what we do and loses the impact when we do REALLY love something.
It's not a conscious decision to cover fewer NEW bands...
...i.e. the ones that aren't served to us on a plate nowadays, it's just that (from a personal p.o.v.) I've not heard a new band that's got me all excited since Let Our Enemies Beware... Russian Circles, I suppose, are new, but they're all veterans of a scene.
Anyway, buy the new Comets on Fire album.
A few issues here...
I've read Plan B pretty much since it strated although I've missed a few issues here and there.
I quite like it, I agree that some of the articles and reviews can be hard going sometimes and the reviewers can appear snobbish, however their passion and love for music also shines through which I believe is one of the differences between magazines like Plan B and the NME, OMM etc.
I salute the brave decision they have taken to move to a monthly release, however I echo some of the concerns that Mike Diver raises.
My main gripe with Plan B is its near total lack of coverage of the UK music scene, and the Research seem to be on the cover twice in a year! are they the only band representative of the UK music scene? I personally feel there are great, vibrent scenes happening around this country, but Plan B at times seems a bit oblivious to it, instead covering what's fresh out of the US.
i definately
think it's a good thing, it can only be. great to see something rival the turgidity of the music mag shelf. and i'd buy it. although dis and pitchfork etc already cover that ground i so think there's something different and unique about actually having a material thing to read.
erm...
this months cover is the long blondes...!?
does
anyone think its maybe too soon for Plan B to go monthly? as in it could be developed alot more before it would appeal to enough people for it to be able to afford to sell monthly....?
and a big feature on...
Bat for Lashes.
big feature on
the UK dubstep scene this month too...?
hmmm...
from the perspective of someone who runs an independent record label in the UK (Gringo), Plan B have run features on Soeza and The Unit Ama. DIS have reviewed Lords, a lot. So I have actually received wider coverage of my bands in Plan B.
They also did an excellent feature on the UK free-folk scene a couple of issues back.
it can't
'go the way of careless talk' cos careless talk was only ever supposed to run for 12 issues/2 years. which if I remember rightly is why the issue numbers counted down.
'supposed to'
bullshit.
If sales had been good enough it would have kept running.
This whole line that they wanted to run it for a specific time to see if they could tackle the major players is crap-o-la: if they HAD mounted a challenge, they'd have continued the magazine.
To kill it in its prime, nicely glossing over the fact that no doubt it ran up a good few debts*, merely served to create a myth.
It was just a magazine. A magazine that had to stop because it was losing money. Like many, many other magazines before and after it. The issue numbers did count down, true, but I'm sure they'd have got around that ;o)
*speculation.
Agree
I'm with Mike on this - nice tactic, but no way was it intended to finish. It would have been like, "Mission accomplished! Now… The Prequels." Or something.
I, for one, find Plan B pretty wanky, for want of a better word, much as I did Careless Talk. Nice idea, good bands covered, looks cool, but with writing of the most self-indulgent order that tells you more about the writer than it does the band.
There needs to be a middle ground, I feel, between the mass-market populism of NME/Q and the 'elitist and proud' likes of Plan B. The US mag Skyscraper does it very well, which I believe you write for Mr Diver, but that isn't monthly and is a web almanac.
So who knows…
Plan B = muddled
I have to agree with others on here that Plan B is a confusing and frustrating read. "Wanky" is harsh but I get what you mean and I suspect I would agree.
I really enjoy The Fly these days - although it has a bit of a Zane "No quality threshold here" Lowe approach, you can at least glean whether a band is any good or not from what they write. Good gig review section and a decent amount of coverage for new bands (that you can understand after you have read them!)
Rock Sound is almost as kiddie rock these days as Alternative Press.....
Artrocker may not be written quite as well as some, but I always look forward to getting that and devour that from cover to cover. The people writing that are generally clued up and have incisive taste. Great publication - I'd recommend that to anyone who doesn't already know it.
There are loads of new bands covered in Plan B but read the reviews and 9 times out of 10 and you would form no idea as to whether the band was any good or what on earth the band was like!
Surely you read the reviews to find out about the band not to marvel as the intricate misplaced dull and irrelevent views of the writer on some unrelated matter?
I remember when Everett's new band pieces for the NME used to be the most interesting and vital pieces in the NME. Has his radar gone down in Plan B?
I would much rather read this here site than Plan B any day of the week and I'm not sure that that is good news for Plan B if I am typical of the people they are trying to appeal to.
That's a plan!
Now, a cross between Plan B and Rock Sound, that could be an interesting prospect.
Rock Sound may look and read like a fanzine and gives far too many good marks, but the enthusiasm is there for all to see.
I like enthusiasm, it's so much better than arched eyebrows and sneers.
I'm not too sure...
i agree with the good review of The Fly in the above post. I always just assumed it was an alright read - pretty basic and straightforward but then i picked it up the other day and i couldn't read it - i found it told me nothing about the bands that are around... it certainly didn't tell me ANYTHING new and the last thing i could do was glean if a band was of interest or not. I was so disappointed... as i really did think it was better than that.
There just seemed to be a real low level of critical thought and everything was 'YAY its GREAT' and on the rare occasions where that wasn't the case it gave me no reasons as to why, nor basis to conduct my own opinion.
I don't mean to slate it though as its cool that these publications are around and i'd still pick it up more so than over mags.. i.e NME etc. Plus i'm sure a lot of hard work goes into it to make it available and accessible.
As for Plan B - I really like it - i find it informative about interesting new bands, beautiful to look at and as one person said previously - you can pick it up whenever and always find food for thought amongst its pages.
DiS is wicked obviously.
plan b
Plan B is everything a new music magazine should be and I'll definitely be buying it every month from now on.
nah,
The Fly's been like that for quite some time now ;)