In December of 2001, Wax Poetics debuted its first issue to a small following of record collectors and “beat diggers.” Ten years later, Wax Poetics has carved out a niche for itself in the world of music journalism and expanded its audience to a worldwide congregation of music lovers.
Issue 50 marks our ten-year anniversary and does so with one of the most iconic musicians in the history of African American music, the one and only Prince.
We’ve also done a full redesign, making the magazine slightly larger—8 x 10.5 inches—and we’ve embraced a new paper stock. Wax Poetics will look a bit different on the newsstand, with a new mark making its debut in place of our old logo, but the magazine will continue to be a collectible objet d’art, something to be saved on your shelf as a musical reference manual, not recycled like other mags.
Wax Poetics has also returned to its roots as a journal and is back to being quarterly. The new price of $11.99 reflects not only radical changes in the publishing industry and the economy, but also the guarantee of continued quality from the paper stock to the writing and photographs. As always, our subscription prices offer a great deal of savings off the cover price.
While we vow to keep Wax Poetics in print as a tangible entity, bucking the trend of ridding our culture of old-school reading products, we will also start offering a digital version of the magazine this year for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and other popular handheld devices.
Issue 50 will be on sale shortly, so please join us as we embark on our tenth year of celebrating the unprecedented and untouchable African American musical tradition!