Sic transit gloria mundi

In a sad but not particularly surprising development, FilmScoreMonthly Magazine has announced that it will cease production of its print magazine effective after the next issue. The magazine was launched fifteen years ago by Lukas Kendall, although from what I'm told, calling what Kendall produced in those early days a "magazine" would amount to a wholesale abandonment of the word "basement-photocopied newsletter". But that only makes Kendall's achievement all the more impressive; FSM has over the years become the main publication of the film music community, and FSM has branched out from producing a magazine to producing high-quality CDs of film scores that have been long unavailable. I myself own only a handful of FSM CDs, and there are a bunch I still want to buy.

From what Kendall says in his message board announcement, FSM as a business isn't going under entirely; the CD production and the web operation will continue. So what this means for FSM in the future remains to be seen; maybe they can remain viable as a provider of film music-related content online. We'll see.

I've never been a subscriber to FSM, but the Borders in Buffalo often had issues available, and I bought more than a few of these over the years. It's too bad that FSM is ceasing print publication, but who knows -- maybe the FSM company will be better off because of it.