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From the editors of zines The Big Takeover, Dumb Angel Gazette, Roctober, Scram and Ugly Things:
Dear Amoeba,
We the undersigned, the editors of five of the most long-lived and influential underground music magazines in America, wonder why your stores, which are otherwise such cool temples of musical knowledge and commerce, carry no magazines.
With the recent closures of L.A.’s Aron’s and Rhino Records, there are two fewer places where our kind of independent and unbiased publications are easily available to music fans. Reviews and features in our magazines, uninfluenced by ad sales or record company payola, have demonstrable effects on record sales and labels’ decisions to reissue vault recordings. More significantly, in stores where our magazines are available, customers can read reviews and immediately purchase music. Our readers are the people who shop at Amoeba Music, so why can’t they find our magazines--or any other magazines--when they are in your stores?
As our repeated attempts to discuss the lack of magazines in Amoeba with your owner Marc Weinstein and L.A. store manager Karen Pearson have met with no reply, we issue this open letter requesting a dialogue.
More and an online petition at the ad-hoc website the zines have posted.
Cover: Scram issue #21