26 May 2006

JustBands declares war on BMA

| johnboy
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Over on Justbands they’ve announced that there’s room in this town for a second street press mag and they intend to be it.

Best of luck to them I say.

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The market changes….. at the moment there are more venues more quality bands than there has been for a long time..

I think the stories will be there….especially if you dig…..
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What she said. 🙂

Absent Diane3:13 pm 29 May 06

The market changes….. at the moment there are more venues more quality bands than there has been for a long time..

I think the stories will be there….especially if you dig…..

Point taken. Far be it from me to say that we don’t need more street press in the ACT. Kudos to you for having the interest to get Justbands off the ground.

The question I have though is whether or not these local events you call “worthy” are not otherwise publicised because they appeal to a very niche market – and as we all know, in Canberra a niche market amounts to very little.
To come clean, the reason I ask (and this will incriminate me I’m sure!) is that I had an indirect association with BMA and their website creation some years ago, so I learned of the woes involved with trying to produce material within what is a far less than lucrative market.

Still, when I see a copy of Justbands I’ll be sure to pick it up for what I’m sure will be an interesting read. (No sarcasm intended.)
I have a good mate in a local band who I am sure will also appreciate what you are doing for the local music industry.

“There is more than enough room for two mags to run side by side….. “

Exactly. I’m certainly NOT trying to put BMA out of business, in fact…that would be very, very bad.

Absent Diane12:31 pm 29 May 06

A majority of local gigs seem to happen out of the city anyway these days..

There is more than enough room for two mags to run side by side…..

I don’t believe that’s true Les. I know of loads of worthy local events that for one reason or another get little to no coverage in BMA. I’m not blaming them, but it is true. They have one page for local bands, we’ll have 16. They do bring BMA out every 2 weeks whereas we’ll be only every 4 weeks as well…so more time to cover to fill the pages.

You can’t get much more locally-focussed than BMA, unless you want to have a one page pamphlet concentrating on the happenings within a 5 block radius of civic.

I’m not defending BMA, but the reason they can’t provide purely local content is because there just isn’t enough happening in this great city to fill the pages. Its the same reason the Canberra Times is nothing more than a glorified community rag and our local news consists of the same tired faces and formulas night after night.

But in saying that, diversity is great, and best of luck to Justbands.

It’s hardly a war really. I’m not aiming to replace BMA, just to provide a more locally focused street press for Canberra.

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