playback - a smart idea

http://magazine.playbackmag.net

publisher of absolute sound and hifi+ has just launched an online music journal called "playback". i spent a good hour downloading it and reading the contents and i am glad to say i find the whole idea smart and makes business sense.

you often see hifi magazines having music as a by-product or secondary contents, playback turns the table around - it is a music magazine with hi-fi as a by-product and i think this is damn cool.

first, you will attract more readers (you know hifi mag readers are dropping by the day), those musicphiles as well as audiophiles. musicphiles don't mind reading secondary contents about hifi to find out how to improve their systems but they would definitely not touch a hardcore hifi magazine. whereas audiophiles would read playback to find out what software (CDs or LPs) to buy, in addition to their regular hifi diet. either way, you win.

malaysia has done this via the MUSIC magazine a couple of years ago but it was such a disastrous project. the contents were poor (predominantly focusing on boring classical music) and very few hifi dealers advertised in it.

let's hope that playback will succeed in converting more musicphiles into audiophiles.