TREASURE: CLASSIC POP [magazine]

This past weekend, while doing some research for a future post, I came across the image below on the interwebtubes. It stopped me dead in my tracks and changed the course of the entire weekend. I found out that I could download the issues from iTunes and wasted no time in doing so - although truth be told, each issue's download took longer than expected but I was able to read each page as the next downloaded.  

After straining my eyes looking at the screen on his phone, I mustered up the courage to ask daughter Dev if he could borrow her iPad so I could read my new favorite magazine. She surprised me with a quick "Yes" and she probably said some other stuff, laid down terms and conditions but I was gone by then and did not hear a word. I know she uses her iPad for both her leisure time and for work - she's a pastry sous chef! - so I logged in under my account, downloaded the free Classic Pop app from the cloud and logged into my account with the publisher to Restore my purchases. Each issue was $5.99 + tax and there is an abbreviated, 21-page free version of the first issue (which has 132! pages) that gives you an ad-free taste of what the UK based mag offers.

There are two electronic subscription options offered - as seen below - and either one would definitely save me money in the long run but I foolishly declined both options and burned through almost $30 from his iTunes Gift Card haul from Christmas. The magazine is available throughout the brick and mortar world at fine establishments including Barnes and Noble Booksellers here in the States. As near as I can cipher the cover price is $7.99 an issue - a print subscription will set you back $10 for each bi-monthly issue.

Make no mistake, I'm not new to the world of e-mags despite my lack of a tablet. I have subscriptions to Consumer Reports, Wired, and Entertainment Weekly and both of those fine publications offer an incomparable interactive experience. [Daughter Dev has several e-mag subs on her iPad as well: Cooks Illustrated, Everyday Food, Relish and Bon Appetit. Like he said, she's a chef.] All of that being said, Classic Pop truly is a nice interactive reading experience, with hyperlinked pictures, websites and the obligatory iTunes/Spotify links contributing to an immersive environment. 

After devouring the first issue, I moved on to issue numero dos and noticed the magazine had a website - must have missed that in the race to read that first issue. So I clicked on over. Oops, Safari. Closed that, opened Chrome, typed in "classicpopmag" and took in the website. For all you hipsters out there livin' la vida loca, Classic Pop also has a presence in the Twitterverse and Facebookastan.  

The website was a bit of a letdown after reading the magazine - the layout is stark which makes for easy navigation is the best I can say about it. And then I noticed the Spotify playlists lurking in the right column. (Only later, as he was illustrating this post, did he come across the cover scan above which has a little Spotify badge on it - it is not on the cover of his e-zine.) Their Spotify user name is (duh!) Classic Pop. As I dictate this missive, they have 175 followers which seems criminally low. We'll see how many loyal Hideaway viewers (and we know they are not viewers) begin following them once they have finished reading this post. Go, Follow them now - I will wait, like a stone.

So issue two was a blast and I rolled on to issue de trois featuring my fave, Adam Ant, in full Kings of the Wild Frontier garb on the cover. It then became apparent to me that each issue was 132 pages with only 16 pages of ads and half of those are in-house: fellow mags or subscription pleas. For good measure, I read the Adam Ant interview twice. Each issue is well laid out with features like: 

• Hit Songwords (song lyrics); 
• On The Radar (list of upcoming Classic Pop era music releases for the next couple of months); 
• Lost & Found (an overlooked Classic Pop album); 
• 1 Hit Wonder (featuring an underplayed Classic Pop song); 
• Godfathers of Pop (single page interviews with Classic Pop artists);
• Transmissions (used to be called the Letters page in magazines but now it features letters, emails, Tweets and Facebook messages);
• Shock of The New (current or up and coming artists with Classic Pop influences);
• and Pop Art (interviews or stories of artists responsible for Classic Pop cover art or photography) and many more.

I took a break after that third issue, to let all that I had read thus far soak in. Then Sunday happened. But as the sun set on what surely must have been a record hot day here at The Hideaway (much swimming was had), I settled down with a glass of iced green tea and the iPad to read the fourth and final-for-now issue of my recently unearthed treasure. Look at the cover above and try to guess what stood out immediately to my pale blue eyes? Yup it was "PRINCE The making of Purple Rain" so I used the little scroll bar at the bottom of the iPad screen to scroll to that article which I read before returning to the "Welcome to Classic Pop" on page three and the beginning of the issue. And then on page 89, there's this:

The magazine's Spotify user account gives a few clues of what else to expect in issue 5 [OUT TODAY!] as the tell-tale titled playlists below reveal. Let me know what you think about Classic Pop the magazine in the comments.  Do you like it?  Do you think it will  last?  Aren't e-magazines and e-books wonderful? I feel just about invincible as I walk around with the complete works of Kurt Vonnegut and the entire recorded output of the Beatles on the iPhone in my pocket. What are your essentials?

UK (left) and international (right) covers for first two issues