Name your own Paste price.
November 6, 2007 8:58 AM Subscribe
Name your own Paste price. Paste Magazine, arguably one of the best music magazines available today, is taking a page from the Radiohead playbook by letting subscribers pay whatever they want for a 12-issue/12-CD subscription (minimum $1).
Clever. More subscribers == more readers == greater advertising revenue. Even the $1.00 cheapskates are probably helping the bottom line.
posted by aladfar at 9:06 AM on November 6, 2007
posted by aladfar at 9:06 AM on November 6, 2007
Arguably for sure. Man, I hate my gift-subscription to Paste. They claim to be about signs of life in music film and culture, but the music at least, especially on the CD, sounds exactly the same from song to song from month to month. Twee, adult-contemporary stuff. No variety, no teeth. Also, the writing is terrible and the articles have no meat to them.
You'd have to pay me to subscribe to the magazine.
posted by sciurus at 9:20 AM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
You'd have to pay me to subscribe to the magazine.
posted by sciurus at 9:20 AM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
I like some of their stuff, but Paste really seemed to be targeted at early-30s indie rock dudes last I checked.
posted by mikeh at 9:27 AM on November 6, 2007
posted by mikeh at 9:27 AM on November 6, 2007
Eh, it's worth $5.
posted by klangklangston at 9:50 AM on November 6, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 9:50 AM on November 6, 2007
Clever. More subscribers == more readers == greater advertising revenue. Even the $1.00 cheapskates are probably helping the bottom line.
Yes, except that quality print mags also try to keep quality subscribers -- people who really want to read your magazine, as opposed to the people who subscribe simply to help out their friend's kid's middle school. Advertisers pay a lot more to magazines with involved, invested subscribers.
posted by Camofrog at 9:54 AM on November 6, 2007
Yes, except that quality print mags also try to keep quality subscribers -- people who really want to read your magazine, as opposed to the people who subscribe simply to help out their friend's kid's middle school. Advertisers pay a lot more to magazines with involved, invested subscribers.
posted by Camofrog at 9:54 AM on November 6, 2007
It's not really comparable because magazines are not supported by subscription revenue, but by ad revenue. Magazines give away a large number of the subscriptions, as well as typically having very cheap introductory subscription rates. And, of course, unlike digital distribution of music, the printing, handling, and shipping of magazines costs a lot of money. So this isn't at all like trying a new revenue model, as the music artists are doing. This is more like a new marketing model than a revenue model.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:57 AM on November 6, 2007
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:57 AM on November 6, 2007
Yeah, I really thought this was about buying bargain-basement paste. Once again, reality disappoints.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:46 AM on November 6, 2007
posted by blue_beetle at 10:46 AM on November 6, 2007
arguably one of the best music magazines available today
the keyword here is "arguably"
posted by matteo at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2007
the keyword here is "arguably"
posted by matteo at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2007
Metafilter: Eh, it's worth $5.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 11:37 AM on November 6, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by Aloysius Bear at 11:37 AM on November 6, 2007 [2 favorites]
Ooh. They were this close to actually taking a page from the Radiohead playbook.
Well, to be fair, they do have to physically ship a paper copy of the magazine to your house once a month.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:40 AM on November 6, 2007
Well, to be fair, they do have to physically ship a paper copy of the magazine to your house once a month.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:40 AM on November 6, 2007
Unfortunately, the less-than-full-price version of Paste will be printed at a lower resolution, with 72 dpi black-and-white photos only, and 8-point dot-matrixy Courier text.
posted by troybob at 12:22 PM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by troybob at 12:22 PM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
Hmmm... you know, that's kinda rad. Not my favorite mag, but definitely worth $5.
posted by ph00dz at 12:32 PM on November 6, 2007
posted by ph00dz at 12:32 PM on November 6, 2007
I like some of their stuff, but Paste really seemed to be targeted at early-30s indie rock dudes last I checked.
the funny thing is that, in their last issue, they put in some kanye west content and got crucified for it. not that kanye is indie or anything, but i can't imagine what would happen if they put an atmosphere track on their cd, etc. it seems that their userbase really pushes them to talk about ryan adams, etc and ignore any other indie music out there.
posted by mrballistic at 12:43 PM on November 6, 2007
the funny thing is that, in their last issue, they put in some kanye west content and got crucified for it. not that kanye is indie or anything, but i can't imagine what would happen if they put an atmosphere track on their cd, etc. it seems that their userbase really pushes them to talk about ryan adams, etc and ignore any other indie music out there.
posted by mrballistic at 12:43 PM on November 6, 2007
I got about a year of this when Tracks stopped publishing. I even reupped when the balance of my Tracks subscription ended. It really reminded me -- editorial, ads, all -- of the Pulse! magazine that Tower Records published back when there was a Tower Records.
I was a little disappointed, to be honest, when they went monthly and dumped the pack-in DVDs.
posted by britain at 1:45 PM on November 6, 2007
I was a little disappointed, to be honest, when they went monthly and dumped the pack-in DVDs.
posted by britain at 1:45 PM on November 6, 2007
Speaking of Radiohead, it seems that less than half of the downloaders decided to pay anything at all.
posted by malocchio at 3:02 PM on November 6, 2007
posted by malocchio at 3:02 PM on November 6, 2007
Personally, I think that this is great. I am generally not a magazine reader unless I am going on a flight but I actually enjoy Paste (for the CD if nothing else).
New music was pretty much limited to what they talked about on All Things Considered until someone gave me a Paste subscription. I am pretty sure that I would not have gotten around to The Roots, Over the Rhine, Pedro the Lion or Death Cab for Cutie if I had not heard them on the CDs that come with the magazine let alone actually read about the artists.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 8:59 AM on November 7, 2007
New music was pretty much limited to what they talked about on All Things Considered until someone gave me a Paste subscription. I am pretty sure that I would not have gotten around to The Roots, Over the Rhine, Pedro the Lion or Death Cab for Cutie if I had not heard them on the CDs that come with the magazine let alone actually read about the artists.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 8:59 AM on November 7, 2007
Malocchio— That study looks thin. I ended up "paying" for the album twice, once nothing and once $3 (after I'd listened to it). That means half of my n paid nothing.
posted by klangklangston at 9:43 AM on November 7, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 9:43 AM on November 7, 2007
Agreed. I hope we get to see the result of a more comprehensive study at some point.
posted by malocchio at 10:19 AM on November 7, 2007
posted by malocchio at 10:19 AM on November 7, 2007
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Ooh. They were this close to actually taking a page from the Radiohead playbook.
posted by Plutor at 9:06 AM on November 6, 2007