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Francie
Aloha
USA
15 Posts |
 Posted - 11/15/2005 : 06:57:47 AM
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Has there ever been a move that anyone knows of to publish a slack key magazine or is there a guitar magazine in print that has a slack key section?
Francie
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Ianui
Lokahi
USA
298 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2005 : 07:51:52 AM
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I investigated doing that a couple years ago and unfortunately, the number of people that may subscribe just doesn't cover the costs.
There is another way however which I am looking at and hope to provide information soon |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2005 : 09:14:10 AM
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I've been writing about slack key for ten years or more, and while Acoustic Guitar has been pretty open to pieces, they only bite on one of my pitches about every two or three years. They're not hostile to slack key, but I suspect their analysis of the general readership marks the genre as a niche. I count four possible *paying* markets in the US for stories about traditional Hawaiian music: Sing Out!, AG, Guitar Player, and the revived Frets. (Dirty Linen is a very nice magazine and would be a great venue if they paid, but it's all-volunteer and likely to stay so.) And they're not going to run more than one feature every year or two, plus *maybe* reviews of the more prominent recordings. (There are UK world-music publications--Froots and Songlines--but I never queried them--and their frequency-of-coverage for Hawaiian music is no better than the US magazines'.)
If I can't sell more than one piece every two or three years, imagine the challenge of making even a quarterly dedicated to slack key pay its own way. Twenty years ago I was told that a magazine owner had to be prepared to lose a lot of money for two or three years (the number then was a million or so). And the magazine market is much, much tougher than it was then.
This is a long-winded way of confirming what Ianui says. What *is* economically feasible is a website--and when I surveyed on-line resources for slack key a couple years ago for an AG feature, that's what I found: lots of amateur (in the root sense) efforts. A website can be maintained on a hobby basis without causing economic ruin. (Divorce and burnout are possibilities, though.) But it would have to follow the Dirty Linen all-volunteer model, because even without printing and mailing costs, you still couldn't afford to pay someone like me the going rate for copy.
I suspect that you're looking at one of the best alternatives to a print periodical right here. Add general-news/gateway sites like Keola Donaghy's NahenaheNet and the podcasts that are starting to appear (Keola Donaghy, Patrick Landeza, Piko's Hawaiian Concert Guide) and you have many of the elements of a magazine already--you just have to assemble them yourself.
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Ray Sowders
Akahai
USA
96 Posts |
Posted - 11/17/2005 : 11:07:00 AM
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Aloha Russell and all,
This is an interesting thread. My only input is that I originally started my web site as an information site, because I had talked to many local folks who said they had information to share, and didn't want to pass away without sharing it. Song writers, musicians, and hula people in general. As soon as I created my site, folks backed down and were afraid because many have been "burned" before. Many are hesitant and don't understand the internet. So it is very difficult to gain the trust of those who are still living reference. I would be interested in working with anyone who wants to share na mea Hawaii..."Hawaiian cultural things". If there is a way I can help let me know. Ray |
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