periodicals

Pat Pagano wrote:

"What I really mean is when was the last time
you went to any "normal store"  and saw a valid JI/Modern theory
periodical
save for maybe --Wire?"

This is a completely unrealistic expectation. When I was putting out
_Xenharmonikon_, I had a press run of one hundred copies, which was already
beyond my finances, and it would take several years to sell out even that
number of copies. The cover price of ten dollars had little or no profit
margin and so sending issues out to retailers on a concession basis was
impossible unless (a) the cover prices were doubled and (b) the issues
would be expected to sell out within a reasonable period. Of course, I had
no idea what the market prospects for _XH_ in Yangton or Tulsa were, but at
that time, to the best of my knowledge, only Patelson's in New York and
Theodore Front Music Literature in Los Angeles made serious attempts to
handle materials like _Xenharmonikon_, but neither of these firms (as well
as several University Libraries) has ever settled their invoices with me.

Luckily, the Just Intonation Store and Frog Peak Music have come along, and
-- despite some initial problems -- they have proven to be a reliable
distribution system for _XH_. In addition, the alternative tuning list has
largely come to fill some of the roles played by _XH_ and other journals.

In general, if a periodical has some scholarly content, you will not find
it in any 'normal store'; the press runs and markets are too small, the
costs too high. Up to the mid-seventies, I can recall going into my local
music store and finding the current issue of the _Musical Quarterly_ or the
_Musical Times_, but at that time both journals represented a consensus
view on what 'classical' music culture was, and could count on steady
interest from music teachers and amateurs. This consensus is long gone and,
for better as well as for worse, the level of professional specialization
represented by such journals has increased.

Dan
I love(d) XEn
respected Ivor
and have many ditribution connections
I do not think a magazine is unrealistic just hard work
Lets talk about some ideas

Daniel Wolf wrote:

> From: Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@compuserve.com>
>
> Pat Pagano wrote:
>
> "What I really mean is when was the last time
> you went to any "normal store"  and saw a valid JI/Modern theory
> periodical
> save for maybe --Wire?"
>
> This is a completely unrealistic expectation. When I was putting out
> _Xenharmonikon_, I had a press run of one hundred copies, which was already
> beyond my finances, and it would take several years to sell out even that
> number of copies. The cover price of ten dollars had little or no profit
> margin and so sending issues out to retailers on a concession basis was
> impossible unless (a) the cover prices were doubled and (b) the issues
> would be expected to sell out within a reasonable period. Of course, I had
> no idea what the market prospects for _XH_ in Yangton or Tulsa were, but at
> that time, to the best of my knowledge, only Patelson's in New York and
> Theodore Front Music Literature in Los Angeles made serious attempts to
> handle materials like _Xenharmonikon_, but neither of these firms (as well
> as several University Libraries) has ever settled their invoices with me.
>
> Luckily, the Just Intonation Store and Frog Peak Music have come along, and
> -- despite some initial problems -- they have proven to be a reliable
> distribution system for _XH_. In addition, the alternative tuning list has
> largely come to fill some of the roles played by _XH_ and other journals.
>
> In general, if a periodical has some scholarly content, you will not find
> it in any 'normal store'; the press runs and markets are too small, the
> costs too high. Up to the mid-seventies, I can recall going into my local
> music store and finding the current issue of the _Musical Quarterly_ or the
> _Musical Times_, but at that time both journals represented a consensus
> view on what 'classical' music culture was, and could count on steady
> interest from music teachers and amateurs. This consensus is long gone and,
> for better as well as for worse, the level of professional specialization
> represented by such journals has increased.
>
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