The Easy Way Out

Regardless of what anyone says, Alternative Press Magazine, STILL hasn't sold out.

IF we HAD sold out, we would have turned into one of the above-pictured magazines.

Jonas Brothers, HSM3, Miley and so on.

The above magazines are created by people that have sold out.

Whenever a new movie sensation or teen-bop band breaks out and sells millions of something, a small group of sweat-house publishing companies rush to their desktop computers ordering a cadre of meagerly-paid editors who know nothing of the market they're writing about (or for) to copy and paste 32 pages of press releases and interviews, all stolen from the internet, and rush-release them to the printer and then to the newsstand.

The result?

Cash cows created primarily to live off of an already-passing trend.

All to just make a fast buck.

Then they'll do it again whenever the next craze hits.

If AP had sold out, we would be doing things like that.

Repeatedly.

Every single month.

Kind of like when Circus Magazine used to throw Ozzy on the cover every single issue somehow.

Either his photo or his name. Or even a hint of Ozzy.

(There's a band name- Hint of Ozzy.)

I've always been happy that we didn't make a lot of cover decisions just to make a quick buck.

Yes, when we were really bad for cash to pay our printer back in the mid-90's, we went to the Insane Clown Posse well one too many times, I admit.

ICP fans are NUTS. They will buy ANYTHING with ICP on it, in it or even with a scent of ICP.

(There's an ICP cover band name- A Scent of ICP.)

But we had to. It was for our survival.

(Read the AP HISTORY section on our website. It's all explained there.)

Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that anymore.

When artists get more than one AP cover in their career, it's because they deserve it.

Reader demand cause our covers to happen.

Iconic status within the scene cause our covers to happen.

Comeback-records from heaven cause covers to happen.

But, why don't we put only unknown bands on the cover every month?

To be honest, not enough people will buy the magazine to keep the doors open.

And there isn't a publication, television network, website or book company that would debate me about this.

So, we try and play it down the middle.

A little known and a little new.

We're kind of like that deejay at the club; we have to play not only the cool new imports but also the standards.

If you only play new stuff, people won't dance because they don't know it.

So you throw in some of the stuff they know to get them onto the dance floor and then you throw in the new stuff when they're sweating it all around like whirling-dervishes.

Before you know it, you've hooked them on the new stuff.

And AP readers generally like it this way, we've been told.

Only three cover stars this year had been on the cover of AP before, which kind of says a lot.

Fall Out Boy, Panic and Underoath- all icons within the scene.

(I didn't include Mr. Green and Mr. Owens because their covers were for solo projects and not their regular band gigs.)

All three bands fought hard for their covers too.

Ask Pete to tell you the story sometime (or watch his video on our website.)

Overall, I have to say, I've been really happy with our cover choices for 2008.

Against Me to Paramore. How much wider of a view could you get?

And 2009 is already shaping up nice for us too. (Oh, and AP TOUR 09!)

But, maybe we could have just done what those publishers did above in that photo I took at my local Giant Eagle.

Just stuck our finger in the air and seen which way the winds were blowing.

And go with whatever that was.

Or, we could do what Rolling Stone does every time they're desperate to sell a lot of magazines fast for some reason.

Throw Justin Timberlake in a wet t-shirt on the cover.**

Now, that's selling out.

(**I keep this cover pinned to my office wall to remind me what NOT to do with AP.)