Alternative Wave Magazine
Age 22 - now
Alternative Wave Magazine covers all things riding the alternative wave today. In spreading Music with Culture through Photographic and Journalistic excellence, we hold Truth and Authenticity at the most high. Forged in the fire, and from the ashes, we shall rise.
This magazine is the first of a few bonsai tree branches I'm growing for Moon & Stars Productions. More info on Moon & Stars here.
Issue #12 ~ 1/2
Spread from Issue #11
Issue #12 ~ 1/2
Spread from Issue #12
Issue #11
Spread from Issue #12
As an alt fan myself, I know the pain points & exactly what the community wants/needs. The music industry has a gaping hole for a real news/entertainment outlet. For Alt fans, it’s hard to find legit artists that aren’t fake Hollywood plastic. Print media is also greatly missed. As the cherry on top, awesome collectibles feat. fan's fav artists are nonexistent. We are the solution. At the same time, we’re building a platform to promote the artists we work with (which are the best of the best) plus interviews, documentaries, vlogs, bts movies, stories, projects, & culture-shifting phenomena that all ride the alternative wave today.
I am acting Editor in Chief. 26 of the 28 Moon & Stars team members are Alt Wave Mag contributors. As EIC, I coordinate getting all photographers into shows, determining our monthly issue lineup, delegate article creation amongst our writers, coordinate the graphic designers to put together the final product (the printed/digital magazine), I oversee the print production, shipping/handling, & I work tight with our social media manager and interns to put out/market all this mag content to the World Wide Web.
Issue #7
Spread from Issue #13
Issue #6
Spread from Issue #12
Issue #14
Spread from Issue #11
My favorite part of this biz is doing videography. This is where I shine the brightest skill-wise & where my heart lights up the most. The featured video here is my favorite show documentary I have made to date.
This doc features some buddies of mine, SAMNX (Samn like damn) they are on our "phoenixes rising" lineup; a roster of my top picks & the most promising artists coming up out of the AZ Heat underground scene today. This roster is me calling the shots of who's got it like that in AZ right now. SAMNX is going to be selling out shows worldwide one day. Just watch. As for the Phoenixes rising lineup, each month in the magazine, we rotate through our roster & write updates on the artist/group on what dope moves they have been making since we last checked in with them.
Our Stats:
~ 3473 web users total
~ 205 members in the alt wave riders club (free email list)
~ 12.31 avg events/user
~ 14k avg web views/month
~ 152k social media engagements/month
~ 1.8k social media following
~ $49 avg order value, 1.2 mags/order ($28/mag not including shipping)
~ $361:$1 LTGP:CAC
~ only 3 ad campaigns ran so far, most spent on 1 was $40 total
We have a vast network to cover shows. The biggest band/artist we have worked with is either Baby Bash or Nickelback. Selling our product is stupid easy. I decided to start selling the print copy because I got an overwhelming amount of our internet fans messaging me "Do you guys sell print copies? I'd like to buy one :)" Most of our engagements come from artists sharing the stuff we create on them. Our core fanbase is active & loyal. Proving crazy high product market fit
Pure insanity right? I'm obsessed with how this magazine is looking so far. Readers (AKA: The Alt Wave Riders) constantly leave us raving reviews. On our IG, check out the Highlight reel called "Prints <3"
we got the most humbling & flattering review. a massive fan of a band called The Warning (cover of #6 & #12) messaged us saying she got a meet & greet ticket to their show. She couldn't have spent less than $800 to meet her idols for like 12 seconds. She could bring 1 item to be autographed. Out of all the collectibles she owned, she said without any doubt, she wanted to bring her dany alt wave mag issue.
She sent this pic & I shed tears lol. The thought of this project I led created by myself & the team I got on board with the vision meant so much to this woman none of us knew that she spent her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity & hard-earned $ on getting this mag autographed. humbling & flattering to the max.
As of now, I put the magazines together by hand. Soon enough we'll be able to outsource this to a professional printer. We need to get the order quantities closer to 30 per copy before we can do that. Right now, we'll sell on avg 12 of each copy in an open vault sale (Where anyone can buy any copy) and 15 mags in regular drops (where it's just the one new issue being sold)
I get the loose pages printed from a buddy of mine and I get cooking on the assembly like in the video here. I also put all the packages together for shipping. Customer service, you guessed it, also handled by me.
We have 2 web apps I developed to help run this biz with a small amount of effort. This combined with my team building/delegating skills has made it so alt wave now runs on about 40% the teammate's efforts, 40% the app automation, and 20% me working hands-on with founder tasks. This entire business is built off of Mozi Nation education: Alex's insane training on offer/marketing/advertising/sales education + Leila's ceo/operator/leadership/people/being the real top g/crushing always education + my prior knowledge of Videography/Graphic Design/Photography/Coding/shipping/handling/customer service skills make for this wild combo. Plus my eye for the art of it all and impeccable timing in this market of course. We got it like that & that's that!
This is a lifelong project that I think of in terms of decades. It will be a very long, tough, & treacherous path to go down. Which is why it's time for me to double down on my skill-building. Our systems are very solid to where everything can run with me only needing to do 3-4 hrs of work/day to keep up with the content we are putting out & the value we are providing to viewers. Check us out on all plats below!
Forged in the fire & from the ashes, we shall rise