Anyone read Prog magazine?

I picked one up in the Stockholm airport the other day. Good read. It has a lot of bands for me to check out. Any readers? what do y'all think? Just a shill mag?

I haven't bought an issue in quite some time. I usually just look at the pictures.

I have read some articles from it online, but I have never bought it or held the actual magazine in my hands.

The only arts/media magazine that I would buy, and I used to read every issue thanks to it being stocked in the West Vancouver Memorial library, was Sight & Sound which is a film magazine put out by the British Film Institute. I used to devour books on film too, but have read very few on music. Kind of strange in a way that here I found myself a regular at a music forum rather than a film forum.

I used to but not anymore. Every single one of their covers has a super well known prog artist on it (Ian Anderson, Dream Theater, Fish, Steven Wilson, Rush, etc). Why not put some lesser known bands on the cover? How are they going to get more exposure if they aren't even recognized as important enough to be on the cover. I've never even seen TFK or Spock's Beard on the cover which is more than I can say for Progression magazine who were a bit more daring in that department. The main reason I stopped buying it though is because I already have way too many and I can as easily look up information on bands  online. Soon after I stopped buying it they stopped with the free cd anyway.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - August 25 2022 at 11:12

I buy the majority of the issues. There's usually some interesting articles in each one and I really enjoyed their recent interview with Arthur Brown, plus they also feature plenty of new bands from around the world. It's not perfect and you can get a lot of the info online before you get to read about it in a magazine, but I think it's great that the "Prog" genre can support its own publication.


Edited by Cactus Choir - August 25 2022 at 11:52

I used to buy the electronic issues to read on my iPad, because so long as I wasn’t in any rush to read the latest issue, every couple of months they would have a sale where back issues were only 99p. I found them quite interesting, though they are very much skewed towards the past, and while they certainly have articles and interviews of more modern and contemporary bands and artists, they tend to be few and the same ones again and again. What I always found most interesting and informative was the review section, as there was a greater variety to be found there. I’m not sure I’d ever have wanted to have paid much more than 99p for an issue, as there was never particularly much I couldn’t have found otherwise on the internet, but it was a good way of passing time, to flick through the pages on my tablet. It’s been years since I read the mag, though, and I don’t feel I’m missing out.

lazland wrote: We took my mother in law into town today for a haircut at the salon. Mrs Wife stayed there with her, whilst I buggered off for a coffee and chocolate cake round the corner. I purchased the latest issue of Prog to get something to read, first time I have bought it for a long time. It cost me £7.99 and I had read it all by about 6.30 this evening whilst watching the cricket. It is a decent read, no more, no less.

Jared wrote: nick_h_nz wrote: I’m not sure I’d ever have wanted to have paid much more than 99p for an issue, as there was never particularly much I couldn’t have found otherwise on the internet, but it was a good way of passing time, to flick through the pages on my tablet. It’s been years since I read the mag, though, and I don’t feel I’m missing out. When it comes to reviews, you write for one of the best Prog sites on the web, Nick; if I want to see what someone is saying about a recent album, TPA is the first place I tend to look, followed by Lazland, of course.

Logan wrote:  I have found it quite interesting that despite our particular interests in music being significantly different, we share much in common with film/ world cinema. I have found many more who seem to have very similar tastes to mine in music who share similar film interests at this forum. I've tried to correlate users tastes in various arts at this forum before. S&S is excellent, or was, as I haven't been reading it regularly for a long time. Unlike Empire, which I found quite poor, and is everywhere, I never see Sight & Sound in magazine sections anymore. That history today site looks interesting.

I've had a subscription for at least 5 years.  I have fallen quite behind on my reading, but I do tend to try and read all of the articles and reviews.  I like to try and listen to all of the albums that they review although that is a losing battle.  I was pretty disappointed when they dropped the cover mount CD.  They provide links for free sampler downloads on BandCamp, but I am pretty sure that if you know where to look you can probably access all of these without the subscription.  I've threatened to cancel my subscription over this, but as of yet, haven't pulled the trigger.