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Greetings faithful readers,

This is my first issue, and let me just say that I’m incredibly excited to be on board. In fact I’m excited at the state of the music industry in general. It seems like all we hear from the major media outlets is how “the industry is dead” or “there is no industry anymore”. It’s just a series of depressing (and endless) rants and diatribes about the sad, pathetic state of music.

You know what I say to that? Nonsense! So the major labels are crumbling – boo hoo. Perhaps that’s the most exciting part of all. What I see is  an industry where there is more creativity, more collaboration between artists, more channels for musicians to distribute their art and more opportunities to get out and perform than ever.

I’m amazed at all the great music that arrives every day here in the office, and I want to thank the artists out there who send us their work. You are the ones we want to celebrate here at Performer. So please continue sharing your records and your stories.

I also want to say thank you for the tireless efforts of our contributors and everyone involved in putting Performer together. They put a lot of heart into the magazine each and every month, and I’m greatly appreciative for all the work that they do.

This is the part of the letter where I suppose you’d like to know a little about me. John Cusack said in High Fidelity, “What really matters is what you like, not what you are like.” So with that in mind, my favorite bands are The Ramones, The Trews and Iron Maiden. I also love old, Italian horror movies – mostly Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci films. Previous to Performer I worked at a music company in Boston called Sonicbids, where I was fortunate enough to connect bands with music festivals all around the world.

I look forward to presenting great content for you each month, and I welcome any feedback you have for us. In the words of Don Cornelius from Tapeheads, “Let’s get into trouble, baby!”

-Benjamin Ricci
Editor

P.S. – yes, I realize that makes two John Cusack movie references in one letter. Sorry…