R.I.P. Guitar Player Magazine

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Maybe one of the mods can change this thread title to Music Magazine Deathwatch because I think there’s going to be a lot more to talk about and not just guitar magazines.

Future Publishing in particular has a lot of music titles. If Classic Rock and Prog go down (again!), I’ll be crushed.
 
And I. I've been a subscriber since it was Stereo Review and was a much better mag. Excellent record reviews back then. Now they only review movies but Mike Mettler writes some good surround sound and reissue stuff. Still going to miss the physical magazine. I guess I'm old school.
Now there is no American publication that covers video equipment or movies on disc
 
Oh hell, no, I didn't read it clearly enough. Now that is a big HELL no. I do not like Stereophile, or at least, I didn't used to.
As a subscriber to Sound & Vision, I’m with you there. Stereophile reviews equipment that costs about the same as typical home in Idaho, and they have boring reviews of boring music
 
Maybe one of the mods can change this thread title to Music Magazine Deathwatch because I think there’s going to be a lot more to talk about and not just guitar magazines.

Future Publishing in particular has a lot of music titles. If Classic Rock and Prog go down (again!), I’ll be crushed.
Future also shut down appa
That was answered quickly... it’s a bloodbath.

Guitar Techniques and Total Guitar bite the dust, too.

do8ttahzn328cFfmrirE8B-650-80.png


jQucTNPJkKTMRW6VBasRPH-650-80.jpg
Pretty sad - I was starting to get into Total Guitar recently, as they often had articles focusing on music history and on a variety of players, not just on techniques
 
Maybe one of the mods can change this thread title to Music Magazine Deathwatch because I think there’s going to be a lot more to talk about and not just guitar magazines.

Future Publishing in particular has a lot of music titles. If Classic Rock and Prog go down (again!), I’ll be crushed.
It would be a shame if they shut those down as well, especially Classic Rock

You would think Future was doing well with all the Taylor Swift and Harry Styles special editions that they released
 
how long has Total Guitar been running?
It appears issue #250 came out in 2014. If one divides 250 by 12, you get 20 as in 20 years. Subtract 20 from 2014 and we get 1994.

I just want to say I sucked at math in school so I don’t mind handing my paper to the person in the desk behind or in front of me to check my work.
 
It appears issue #250 came out in 2014. If one divides 250 by 12, you get 20 as in 20 years. Subtract 20 from 2014 and we get 1994.

I just want to say I sucked at math in school so I don’t mind handing my paper to the person in the desk behind or in front of me to check my work.
Which makes sense since the last issue cover says “30 Years of Guitar- meggedon”
 
This thread prompted me to pull out the box of GP back issues I managed to hang on to.
A foot-high stack of magazines feels heavier than 50 years ago.

Cover price was one dollar.
In the 70's, pre- corporate bookstores, you could pick one up at a record or musical instrument shop.
After missing a few issues, became a subscriber at $12 per year in 77.

My oldest issue is the Jimi Hendrix special edition, September '75.


1728837916905.jpeg



1728837979507.jpeg


1728838038924.jpeg


1728838071444.jpeg
 
I looked for the final Guitar Player issue at Barnes & Noble, but all they had was the November issue with David Gilmour on the cover. Has it not hit the racks yet or is it only available on their website?

Update: I see it comes out 10/15.
 
Last edited:
As with so much these days, YouTube is the content many go to.
Pay for the magazines, or pay for uninterrupted content on the Tube. It's all an investment in what you want to hear/read.
I got no problem with that.
 
Maybe one of the mods can change this thread title to Music Magazine Deathwatch because I think there’s going to be a lot more to talk about and not just guitar magazines.

Future Publishing in particular has a lot of music titles. If Classic Rock and Prog go down (again!), I’ll be crushed.
Classic Rock and Prog are the two other digital publications that I subscribe to. I really like them both but I would be devastated if Prog shuttered its doors.

Any idea why Future Publishing is closing down so many music related titles?
 
Any idea why Future Publishing is closing down so many music related titles?
I think it’s been alluded to in some of the last-issue editor pages that the advertising just isn’t there like it used to be. That money is going to online advertising where it’s easier to track results and pivot quickly. So there’s just not enough money from ads to sustain always-increasing printing costs, mailing/distribution costs added to the fact that more and more people don’t see the need to pay for print material when so much is available online for free or next-to-nothing.

In the case of the guitar magazines, it must be tough to own so many titles and try to get enough advertising for each one. It would be neat if they’d take all those properties and create a mega-guitar magazine that had bits of all of them. But they’re probably better off investing in their web, YouTube and social media presence. It feels like for print, Guitar World will be the focus, but who knows how long that one will last.

Another thing... I assume Future is accountable to shareholders or at least is more corporate-centered than music-centered. If it isn’t making a good profit, it has to be killed. I’m guessing that applies to their non-music titles, too.
 
Back
Top