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Planet Sound getting downsized
Credit Crunching bastards at teletext! Who's next, Bamber Boozler? I heart PS.
A smaller Planet Sound
By John Earls - There's no easy way to say this: Planet Sound is about to get smaller from November 3.
We could try conning you and saying it will be a more efficient, streamlined magazine. The truth is, cost-cutting has hit PS like virtually everywhere.
So, some much-loved aspects of PS will either vanish or shrink in size. But it's vital to say that a core of PS will remain.
To summarise the changes:
The two news sections will be reduced to one, of seven pages per day. Single reviews on Launchpad go from twice-weekly to once-a-week. There will be one feature interview section, not two.
Album/gig reviews will be eight pages, updated twice a week rather than daily. The demo reviews go and we are no longer running the charts, except for chart stories on PS News.
We're proud of being as comprehensive as possible for reviews - we know that many of you will have come across acts who had their first review on PS.
We think it's important to review Keyboard Choir next to Keane. By definition, we can't be so thorough. Nor will we be able to cover metal as well as we'd started doing.
But, in 16 weekly reviews, we'll cover as broad a range of acts as possible.
What needs to be emphasised is that, if a new band of whatever stature is worth covering, we will do so.
That goes for both single/album/gig reviews, or interview coverage.
Bands like Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys had exposure very early on from PS, and have repaid us by continuing to give us stories and interviews. On a purely practical basis, we'd be foolish to stop that approach now.
Of course, the loss of a demos page is sad after we've seen Maximo Park, Hope Of The States, Calvin Harris and The Twilight Sad flourish after reviews.
But if you want to send me demos, I'll continue to try to get through them, review the exceptional ones and pass on other good ones to industry contacts.
Right now, we're trying to get The Incredible Flight Of Birdman industry help. That advice need not end.
If you're wondering why reviews will be updating less frequently, well, after nine years on PS, I'm going freelance.
I'll still be editing. And if I didn't think we'd still be better, more varied than other music magazines, I'd quit.
PS will carry on championing a broad scope of artists. We'll continue to break news stories. We'll still have fascinating interviews. And you can still argue about it all on The Void.