5 ms·

Future Music magazine is closing after 32 years

82 points by austinallegro 2y ago

BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
others too > Sources have also informed MusicTech that Future will be closing Computer Music, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques and Guitar Player magazines.
- svaha1728 2y ago
  I’ll miss Guitar Techniques. I feel like they missed the boat and should have integrated with Soundslice… YouTube has some great players, but I’d often search for guitarists from Guitar Techniques that YouTube algorithms hadn’t played for me yet.
- musicale 2y ago
  RIP magazines. The tutorials in Future Music and Computer Music were excellent. Curated downloads were nice also (and could often be used in the tutorials.) And guitar technique tutorials are basically timeless. I actually enjoy reading ads (not to mention reviews and tutorials for various products) in music magazines. It's disappointing that companies seem to have switched to junky web ads instead.
  - neuralRiot 2y ago
    >I actually enjoy reading ads (not to mention reviews and tutorials for various products) in music magazines. It's disappointing that companies seem to have switched to junky web ads instead. One of the things I miss most from physical media is the sense of discovery it brought, we saw ads or unexpected articles related to the magazine thematic, products or services that you didn’t know existed, same with books, browsing the shelves of the bookstore you found something new that drew you attention on the record store flipping vinyls you saw some weird album art and decided to give it a listening. Now you get ads for things you already bought or the same 5 books everyone sees because they’re “trending”, you have infinite music at your fingertips and yet get the same 10 tracks suggested every time.
talldayo 2y ago
The Martin Garrix interview they linked to was kinda famous for blatantly showing him using pirated software plugins: https://youtu.be/CfCmoEixxro?t=558 https://youtu.be/CfCmoEixxro?t=558 Here he's using Sylenth1 licensed to "Team A.I.R." ...a well-known VST piracy org: https://audiosex.pro/threads/team-air.41932/ https://audiosex.pro/threads/team-air.41932/ Just goes to show, you might build the tool that makes the next club banger or viral social platform, but good luck making anyone, pros or hobbyists, pay for it.
- kev009 2y ago
  It unfortunately leads to subscription models. That doesn't directly prevent piracy, but the lower entry cost and the potential for regular "value add" will keep more people paying up (see Reason+, Slate Digital, Roland Cloud, Splice, etc)
  - tgv 2y ago
    Idk. Was ilok ever cracked?
    - copperx 2y ago
      No. It's always interesting to me how music apps were the only ones adopting hardware copy protection wholeheartedly. Multi-thousand dollar scientific apps? nope. Music apps.
      - itsthejb 2y ago
        That’s not surprising at all. I don’t about the scientific apps you’re talking about, but I assume that their user base would be accessing them through academic site licenses. Music apps, however, would be predominantly used by hobbyists, a few of which would later make it big. The problem was/is that the price tags assumed studio budgets. But if you wanted those studio sounds at home, well the price is a big challenge until you start making solid money. Which is even fewer
      - stonethrowaway 2y ago
alsetmusic 2y ago
Computer Music magazine helped me understand the basics of how to setup a DIY digital recording studio in 2001-2002. Around this time, I was reading a CM article about trade schools for learning audio engineering and saw one mentioned in Emeryville, CA (Expression Digital Arts, or similar; they've had many name changes). I alreadu wanted to move to the Bay Area and it turned out to be across from San Francisco (Berkeley and Oakland adjacent). I called admissions the next day and had an appointment to tour the facilities by lunch. I flew out a month later for the tour. It was the fastest progression from idea to execution on any major decision in my life. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I didn’t complete the program, but got what I needed for my own musicianship and production. Music never got beyond a hobby, but I learned a great deal there. Later, I was well-placed geographically to enter a career in tech. I’ll miss these magazines, even though I’ve rarely bought physical copies in the last decade. I've got multiple boxes of issues going back many years because even as the software changed, the tips on mixing techniques were timeless. It’s the end of an era.
rchaud 2y ago
RIP magazines. Sad to think that they will be replaced with half-assed Wikihow articles or one-size-fits-all OpenAI-hallucinated slop.
- yazzku 2y ago
  Time to put glue on that pizza, folks.
- lobsterthief 2y ago
  Too bad we could never figure out monetization and attention economy competition for publishing
  - wombatpm 2y ago
    They gave it all up. Major publishers had teams of sales people with deep relationships with all of the ad spenders. They gave that up to doubleclick so they could sell eyeballs to purveyors of penis enhancement drugs for $0.25 per eyeball. Then per 1000 eyeballs, then per 1000 clicks. Then they let Google scrape everything for SEO. They never should have followed online content, they should have led.
  - 1oooqooq 2y ago
    I think Wikipedia filled that niche pretty well. if we didn't have the rat race everyone could just contribute the best knowledge and content and free software to the world. but instead of fixing the rat race we focus on literally everything else to conform to it.
- kev009 2y ago
  I'm still sad whenever I think about ACM Queue halting print, it was a window into such a different way of thinking to teenage self taught PHP idiot me and the print format helped me slow down and think since I already had plenty to do and read online.
- SideQuark 2y ago
  Not everything on the internet is "half-assed Wikihow articles or one-size-fits-all OpenAI-hallucinated slop." If that's your view of all internet content I recommend learning to find good information, which is more accessible and prevalent than anytime in history. That is why magazines are dying - the interent provides anything a magazine does, but with more depth, more solid authors, and more accessible. If a magazine article is too shallow, or above your head, or below your level, then you're stuck. But with the internet and basic searching skills, you can find any level of content, in writing, in video, with projects and how-to's, detailed explanations, teardowns, DIYs stuf, fundamental technical specs and protocols, and on and on.
DrNosferatu 2y ago
Was a big fan of PC Format in the mid 90s ;) Until some point: I wonder if the their style changed too much or I as a teenager changed too much? Or those vibes carried on somewhere else?
ydnaclementine 2y ago
Any magazines worth subscribing to still, tech focused or not? I literally only get spam and christmas card from mom in my mailbox.
- mattl 2y ago
  2600 is worth subscribing to. You can do it electronically or in print. You can even buy a lifetime subscription for $260.
looneysquash 2y ago
Why are print magazines dead, but print comics still doing so well? I only really got into comics in the last year or so. I'm blown away by just how many different comics come out each week. They have really well done artwork, and usually contain minimal ads, at least compared to modern websites. Granted, there's fewer pages per comic. But something tells me that the level of effort is as much or more than most print magazines, due to the artwork.
- broke303 2y ago
  information has an expiration date, unlike art
- BizarroLand 2y ago
  Future Music was a rare buy for me. It was always $15-$20, which is a lot to spend for a magazine that was 70% advertising in one form or another, 29% beginner how-tos, and 1% "we figured out something that might be useful to you" Sure, the sample/vst dvds are nice enough, but if the magazine cost $8, the way it should, I wouldn't have bought the dvds for $12 separately.
miunau 2y ago
If you're interested, Tape Op and Sound On Sound still offer subscriptions and have catered to the (more sensible) pro market for decades. FM has been an outlier, though I have good memories of ripping samples from their cover CDs in the 90s.
- Optimal_Persona 2y ago
  Yes, and the fact that Tape Op subscriptions are free (at least for the US) is mind-boggling.

82 points by austinallegro 2y ago

others too > Sources have also informed MusicTech that Future will be closing Computer Music, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques and Guitar Player magazines.

svaha1728 2y ago
I’ll miss Guitar Techniques. I feel like they missed the boat and should have integrated with Soundslice… YouTube has some great players, but I’d often search for guitarists from Guitar Techniques that YouTube algorithms hadn’t played for me yet.
musicale 2y ago
RIP magazines. The tutorials in Future Music and Computer Music were excellent. Curated downloads were nice also (and could often be used in the tutorials.) And guitar technique tutorials are basically timeless. I actually enjoy reading ads (not to mention reviews and tutorials for various products) in music magazines. It's disappointing that companies seem to have switched to junky web ads instead.
- neuralRiot 2y ago
  >I actually enjoy reading ads (not to mention reviews and tutorials for various products) in music magazines. It's disappointing that companies seem to have switched to junky web ads instead. One of the things I miss most from physical media is the sense of discovery it brought, we saw ads or unexpected articles related to the magazine thematic, products or services that you didn’t know existed, same with books, browsing the shelves of the bookstore you found something new that drew you attention on the record store flipping vinyls you saw some weird album art and decided to give it a listening. Now you get ads for things you already bought or the same 5 books everyone sees because they’re “trending”, you have infinite music at your fingertips and yet get the same 10 tracks suggested every time.

talldayo 2y ago

The Martin Garrix interview they linked to was kinda famous for blatantly showing him using pirated software plugins: https://youtu.be/CfCmoEixxro?t=558 https://youtu.be/CfCmoEixxro?t=558 Here he's using Sylenth1 licensed to "Team A.I.R." ...a well-known VST piracy org: https://audiosex.pro/threads/team-air.41932/ https://audiosex.pro/threads/team-air.41932/ Just goes to show, you might build the tool that makes the next club banger or viral social platform, but good luck making anyone, pros or hobbyists, pay for it.

kev009 2y ago
It unfortunately leads to subscription models. That doesn't directly prevent piracy, but the lower entry cost and the potential for regular "value add" will keep more people paying up (see Reason+, Slate Digital, Roland Cloud, Splice, etc)
- tgv 2y ago
  Idk. Was ilok ever cracked?
  - copperx 2y ago
    No. It's always interesting to me how music apps were the only ones adopting hardware copy protection wholeheartedly. Multi-thousand dollar scientific apps? nope. Music apps.
    - itsthejb 2y ago
      That’s not surprising at all. I don’t about the scientific apps you’re talking about, but I assume that their user base would be accessing them through academic site licenses. Music apps, however, would be predominantly used by hobbyists, a few of which would later make it big. The problem was/is that the price tags assumed studio budgets. But if you wanted those studio sounds at home, well the price is a big challenge until you start making solid money. Which is even fewer
    - stonethrowaway 2y ago

alsetmusic 2y ago

Computer Music magazine helped me understand the basics of how to setup a DIY digital recording studio in 2001-2002. Around this time, I was reading a CM article about trade schools for learning audio engineering and saw one mentioned in Emeryville, CA (Expression Digital Arts, or similar; they've had many name changes). I alreadu wanted to move to the Bay Area and it turned out to be across from San Francisco (Berkeley and Oakland adjacent). I called admissions the next day and had an appointment to tour the facilities by lunch. I flew out a month later for the tour. It was the fastest progression from idea to execution on any major decision in my life. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I didn’t complete the program, but got what I needed for my own musicianship and production. Music never got beyond a hobby, but I learned a great deal there. Later, I was well-placed geographically to enter a career in tech. I’ll miss these magazines, even though I’ve rarely bought physical copies in the last decade. I've got multiple boxes of issues going back many years because even as the software changed, the tips on mixing techniques were timeless. It’s the end of an era.

rchaud 2y ago

RIP magazines. Sad to think that they will be replaced with half-assed Wikihow articles or one-size-fits-all OpenAI-hallucinated slop.

yazzku 2y ago
Time to put glue on that pizza, folks.
lobsterthief 2y ago
Too bad we could never figure out monetization and attention economy competition for publishing
- wombatpm 2y ago
  They gave it all up. Major publishers had teams of sales people with deep relationships with all of the ad spenders. They gave that up to doubleclick so they could sell eyeballs to purveyors of penis enhancement drugs for $0.25 per eyeball. Then per 1000 eyeballs, then per 1000 clicks. Then they let Google scrape everything for SEO. They never should have followed online content, they should have led.
- 1oooqooq 2y ago
  I think Wikipedia filled that niche pretty well. if we didn't have the rat race everyone could just contribute the best knowledge and content and free software to the world. but instead of fixing the rat race we focus on literally everything else to conform to it.
kev009 2y ago
I'm still sad whenever I think about ACM Queue halting print, it was a window into such a different way of thinking to teenage self taught PHP idiot me and the print format helped me slow down and think since I already had plenty to do and read online.
SideQuark 2y ago
Not everything on the internet is "half-assed Wikihow articles or one-size-fits-all OpenAI-hallucinated slop." If that's your view of all internet content I recommend learning to find good information, which is more accessible and prevalent than anytime in history. That is why magazines are dying - the interent provides anything a magazine does, but with more depth, more solid authors, and more accessible. If a magazine article is too shallow, or above your head, or below your level, then you're stuck. But with the internet and basic searching skills, you can find any level of content, in writing, in video, with projects and how-to's, detailed explanations, teardowns, DIYs stuf, fundamental technical specs and protocols, and on and on.

DrNosferatu 2y ago

Was a big fan of PC Format in the mid 90s ;) Until some point: I wonder if the their style changed too much or I as a teenager changed too much? Or those vibes carried on somewhere else?

ydnaclementine 2y ago

Any magazines worth subscribing to still, tech focused or not? I literally only get spam and christmas card from mom in my mailbox.

mattl 2y ago
2600 is worth subscribing to. You can do it electronically or in print. You can even buy a lifetime subscription for $260.

looneysquash 2y ago

Why are print magazines dead, but print comics still doing so well? I only really got into comics in the last year or so. I'm blown away by just how many different comics come out each week. They have really well done artwork, and usually contain minimal ads, at least compared to modern websites. Granted, there's fewer pages per comic. But something tells me that the level of effort is as much or more than most print magazines, due to the artwork.

broke303 2y ago
information has an expiration date, unlike art
BizarroLand 2y ago
Future Music was a rare buy for me. It was always $15-$20, which is a lot to spend for a magazine that was 70% advertising in one form or another, 29% beginner how-tos, and 1% "we figured out something that might be useful to you" Sure, the sample/vst dvds are nice enough, but if the magazine cost $8, the way it should, I wouldn't have bought the dvds for $12 separately.

miunau 2y ago

If you're interested, Tape Op and Sound On Sound still offer subscriptions and have catered to the (more sensible) pro market for decades. FM has been an outlier, though I have good memories of ripping samples from their cover CDs in the 90s.

Optimal_Persona 2y ago
Yes, and the fact that Tape Op subscriptions are free (at least for the US) is mind-boggling.