Dear readers,

Since the COVID-19 crisis hit we’ve been trying to work out how to keep Loud And Quiet going. Or, should I say, if we can keep it going.

Most recently, you may have noticed that this month’s edition of the magazine was not published as planned. In the current climate, it’s probably no surprise. For one, all of the stores and venues we stock in remain closed, their businesses suffering as much as anyone else’s. But there’s long been a bigger problem that we’ve faced – our dependency on advertising to fund everything we do, from the mag to the site to the podcasts. Needless to say, with the cancellations of festivals and live shows, the delay of record releases, and general uncertainty across the board, our advertisers (and therefore our revenue stream) disappeared overnight as soon as the lockdown kicked in in March.

We knew this was going to happen, just as we’ve known for the last 15 years how vulnerable our position is in making a print magazine that we’ve always given away for free.

For a long time (until 2018, in fact) we felt too embarrassed to ask our readers for help. Since we have, many of you have responded by subscribing to the magazine, for which we are extremely grateful. But the truth is that we need more of our readers to sign up, to be able to break away from an unsustainable model where we’re banking on advertisers each month and undervaluing our work. This is especially going to be important once the pandemic is over, as many companies will have even less to spend on advertising than before.

Of course, we’re not the only ones in real trouble within the music industry. From venues and promoters who feel like they can’t put a ticket price on the door anymore, to artists playing for low fees and battling with streaming services, it’s all felt like it’s been hanging by a thread for years. Hopefully, one of the positives to come out of coronavirus (within society as a whole, but especially within the arts) will be a reset in what we consider a fair price for the things we love.

So below is what we’ve come up with as a new subscriber package. It really is our only chance of survival.

If enough people sign up, Loud And Quiet will continue from August. If not, our issue released last month will be our final edition and we will close down. (Rest assured that all subscriptions will be refunded in full if we don’t hit our target.)

If you are a reader/listener who enjoys what we do, and if you can afford it, now is your chance to save us.

Thank you for reading and supporting independent music journalism. Underground media and culture can survive COVID-19 if enough of us really want it to.

Stu

£50 per year (free UK postage + international options available)

1. Our next 6 physical editions delivered to your door
2. The digital editions of our next 6 editions, including downloads
3. A copy of our commemorative 15 years of Loud And Quiet 36-page homemade zine
4. A Loud And Quiet leather bookmark
5. A Loud And Quiet die-cast logo pin
6. Our monthly subscriber’s only playlist
7. Entry into our monthly Album of the Month vinyl draw

It’s about here where it’s customary to break down our asking price into a shockingly small amount – less than £1 per week, in this case, covering the above physical bundle, the production of our podcasts, the running of this site and the continuation of us sharing the stories and the music of brilliant new artists doing interesting things in increasingly difficult times.

Please note a few changes:

We will now be printing 6 issues per year, increasing from 68 to 80 pages per issue.   

If you are a current pay-yearly subscriber, you will still receive the issues remaining on your subscription, even if that number is more that 6.

By becoming a new subscriber, we will be able to begin working on our next issue, which will be posted to you mid-August.