Goodbye to My Rolling Stone Magazine Subscription

   My Rolling Stone magazine subscription expired this month.  And I didn't renew it.  Before you shrug your shoulders, I should point out that I'd been a subscriber since May 1979.  The 5/3/79 issue had Richard Pryor on the cover.  I bought it and then got a subscription. I was 15 years old.  But already becoming the music junkie I am today.  For 45 years I kept renewing it.  Before that 1979 issue I either bought random issues or read them at bookstores or libraries.  The year I subscribed, the magazine was at a peak.  Here in the U.S. it's still the most popular music magazine ever.  Even though Jann Wenner has been kicked to the curb nowadays, you can't deny that Rolling Stone was a must read at one point.  But things changed when it went monthly in July 2018.  The cutback from a bi-weekly had to do with declining sales and more importantly the internet.  

  There's no denying that the Rolling Stone had an influence on my tastes in music in my teens.  Its reviews, articles and the acts it championed definitely shaped my listening and buying habits. 

  I might have renewed were it not for the high renewal rates.  $99 for a 12 month magazine? And no digital access?  That's an easy pass for me.  The magazine itself is not bad.  But so short of articles and reviews that it would only take me minutes to skim through.  It seemed that what was in the magazine, despite the digital paywall,  could eventually be found for free online.  Why am I paying $99 a year for something that was easily accessed elsewhere?   The first magazine I ever subscribed to was Billboard.  I was 13 years old.  But a chart junkie at an early age.  And I kept a subscription with that until the late 90's.  Nowadays the magazine is a shell of its former glory.  Hardly any charts in it.  Mostly profiles of artists or music industry types.  

  In case anyone is wondering I still subscribe to print magazines.  The best are the UK ones like Record Collector, Mojo and Uncut.  In the U.S. I'm still onboard with Goldmine, Beatlefan, Shindig, Big Takeover, Ugly Things, No Depression, Endless Summer Quarterly. But that list used to be a lot longer.  Like I said earlier, then the Internet came along and so many print music mags disappeared and went online only.

  So, it's goodbye to Rolling Stone.  When I see people posting pictures of past covers I feel nostalgic.  But as someone once sang, "those days are gone forever".