Scratch Magazine RIP?

DjPound79DjPound79 42 Posts
edited October 2008 in Strut Central
i used to love to buy those scratch mags, for a minute there every issue was incredibly good. Than a few years later they started gettin real weak and becoming more an XXL type of mag.b,121On that note i havent seen any of their mags on the newstands for like 2 years now.b,121Checked their website and it doesnt pop up, all i get is 401 error.b,121b,121Anyways the first ten issues i always refer back too because they were so informative.b,121Someone needs to pick up where they left off, because that mag was a really good concept.b,121b,121peace and love

  Comments


  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Maybe Hip Hop is the problem overall.

  • my subscription ran out and I got a notice to re-order. I thought about it for a minute and decided not to renew it because I didn't care about it as much anymore and I always got it about 2 weeks after it hit news stands. They went out of business right after. My intuition was right. I wonder what happened to all those people who still had subscriptions.

  • they ended at the run at 20 issues.i think the change in format came from low sales, i think after a while you run out of topics for articles in a production mag...i just sold all mine on ebay.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121they ended at the run at 20 issues.i think the change in format came from low sales, i think after a while you run out of topics for articles in a production mag...i just sold all mine on ebay. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121It wasn't that. Ultimately, the expectations held for the magazine's circulation and ad revenue were unrealistically high and once it became clear Scratch wasn't ever going to do the kind of numbers the publisher wanted, they pulled the plug.

  • ThermosThermos 307 Posts
    This is a serious gap in the market right now. With the continually dropping cost (and bootlegablity) of home production software and equipment, there is only going to be an ever growing audience for a mag like Scratch.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121This is a serious gap in the market right now. With the continually dropping cost (and bootlegablity) of home production software and equipment, there is only going to be an ever growing audience for a mag like Scratch. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121Yeah - I think if it wasn't for the fact that the general mood is that print is dead, you'd see someone else try to step back into this territory. That said, it's still very niche past a certain point. Scratch always had to compete with the likes of Remix and other, more established production/DJ mags even if their hip-hop focus gave them a different look. I don't know if a new magazine would have that much greater opportunity to expand a readership base but I do think the market could try to support one with modest ambitions.

  • Scratch Magazine enabled me to smoke some kill with Lil Jon and get drunk before I interviewed Kanye.b,121And for that I'm grateful.

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121i used to love to buy those scratch mags, for a minute there every issue was incredibly good. Than a few years later they started gettin real weak and becoming more an XXL type of mag.b, 21b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121That magazine was unreadably bad i1until/i1 the relaunch.

  • dcarfagna-that issue with kanye holding the marvin gaye records on the cover?b,121Fantastic article....great issue, one of my favorites.

  • verb606verb606 2,518 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121b,121That magazine was unreadably bad i1until/i1 the relaunch. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121b, 21Damn, why you gotta dis Odub like that? b, 21b, 21b,121Hey O***er, did they pay you well for those breaks articles? I was always jealous reading those because they looked like so much fun to research and write.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121b,121That magazine was unreadably bad until the relaunch. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121b, 21Damn, why you gotta dis Odub like that? b, 21b, 21h,121font class="post"1b,121b,121Well, I wouldn't exactly consider my column to be scintillating reading either. I think getting drunk and interviewing Kanye sounds more fun. b, 21b, 21/font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121Hey O***er, did they pay you well for those breaks articles? I was always jealous reading those because they looked like so much fun to research and write. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121They paid standard scale, which, for a magazine of Scratch's budget, meant $1/word. b, 21b, 21Not mad at that. b, 21b, 21They were fun to write at times but it became challenging since one of our criteria is that they had to be albums where everything was cleared since we weren't trying to fuel lawsuits. Especially at the time when I was doing the column, more and more rap albums were either 1) moving away from clearing and just doing everything on keyboards or 2) using a shitload of samples but not clearing anything. That left us with slim pickings at times; I mean, at one point, I was asked to write about the CRU album. In 2005.b, 21b, 21Also, I feel embarrassed, in hindsight, for some of the errors I made, including one around the Diamond D album that he - very kindly - called attention to when I interviewed him a few months later. However, the worst was when I was writing about Cam'ron's album and I somehow managed to attribute "In the Rain" to Teddy Pendergrass instead of the Dramatics. b, 21img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/oof.gif" alt="" /1

  • mylatencymylatency 10,475 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121 I somehow managed to attribute "In the Rain" to Teddy Pendergrass instead of the Dramatics. b, 21img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/oof.gif" alt="" /1 b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121b, 21 img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/breakface.gif" alt="" /1

  • verb606verb606 2,518 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121b, 21b, 21They were fun to write at times but it became challenging since one of our criteria is that they had to be albums where everything was cleared since we weren't trying to fuel lawsuits. Especially at the time when I was doing the column, more and more rap albums were either 1) moving away from clearing and just doing everything on keyboards or 2) using a shitload of samples but not clearing anything. That left us with slim pickings at times; I mean, at one point, I was asked to write about the CRU album. In 2005.b,121b,121b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121yeah, that's true. There were a good amount of times where you have a whole bunch of joints on an album where you like, "this one's uncredited too" or "we can't tell you the sample but..." Kinda defeats the purpose.

  • Just came across this online magazine which looks like a good substitute. They just released their 3rd issue.b,121b,121Producer???s Edge Magazine b,121b,121a href="http://catalog.proemags.com/showmag.php?mid=wqghpr#/page0/" target="_blank"1http://catalog.proemags.com/showmag.php?mid=wqghpr#/page0//a1
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