f64 All We Surveyed


We’ve been busy logging all the information you provided us in our 2011 readership survey. Do you match the average reader profile? And did you tell us something you thought we should know? All fRoots human’s life and matching opinions are here!


percent chance you’d be male – though possibly that also reflects those who like filling in forms – and anything from 17 to 65 plus. You’ve been interested in the music we cover for 32 years (some of you from the cradle!), have read fRoots for 16 of those, and virtually all of you keep your back copies.


A


You’d be more likely than not to play an instrument (53 percent) and occasional- ly do so in public. Virtually all of you own a home computer (21 percent are Mac users) and, as a result, free standing CD player use has dropped from virtually 100 percent five years ago to 72 percent now. You’re also pretty well tooled up with mp3 play- ers, smart phones and digital cameras too: there’s a low Luddite tendency among you. Having said that though, you’re not great early adopters of e-readers and digi- tal radio. Perhaps the latter reflects the fact that there’s sod all of interest to you being broadcast – and what you want you can find on t’interweb.


Nearly all of you go to concerts, 83 percent of you to festivals (an average of two each a year) and 67 percent to clubs. A perhaps surprisingly high number of you – 66 percent – go to sessions and 72 percent of you go to live music because you’ve read about it in fRoots.


You are still heavyweight music junkies: we salute you! You still buy an average of 42 CDs a year. That’s down from 50 five years ago but you’ve kept the quantity the same by now buying an aver- age of 116 download tracks a year as well. 95 percent of you have bought CDs as a result of reading about them in fRoots and 68 percent of those purchases are now online. Of the rest, 17 percent are from shops and 13 percent at gigs.


To reinforce every known cliché, 52 percent of you are Guardian readers! In music mags we have a maximum of 29 per- cent crossover with any other title. In our own pages, reviews and the main features are overwhelmingly your favourite parts, followed by the news pages and – blush– the Editorials.


And then we left a box in which you could leave comments. Here’s just a small selection from the many:


nd so the dust has settled on our 2011 readership survey. If you were an average reader (and who’d admit to that?!) I’m afraid that there’s an 85


“f


Roots is a very well pro- duced magazine full of very knowledgeable reviews and great inter- views with musicians


from all around our globe. It really does help you to keep in touch with the vast and unbelievable quantity of talented musicians that populate our world. Receiv- ing fRoots every month is like welcoming a treasured friend into your home.


How you manage to provide such comprehensive coverage of the vast cacophony of talent out there I don’t know! My addiction is such that I get cold turkey a couple of days prior to the wel- come thud on my doormat every month.


How about going quarterly?


Still an excellent magazine even after all these years! With the serious erosion of folk and roots music being broadcast and being pushed to the margins (even in the face of its popularity), it is even more important to have such a fine outlet for diverse music from around the world.


Thank you for all your dedication and hard work in bringing the magazine and its various spin-offs to us. You produce an impressive result for what I’m sure is very little financial reward. I bet it’s fun, though!


Put a happier picture of the Ed in his section. There’s not a lot I’d change about


fRoots, though I’d like to see primers about particular genres, sub-genres, regions, styles, prolific artists etc. The odd major ret- rospective would be good too. And I think there’s room for more of the Roots Salad focus on newer acts and/or new discover- ies. On balance though, not much to whinge about.


Even after all these years I still get a huge buzz when another issue drops through the letter box.


If possible, it would be nice if some- one could help Colin Irwin review English folk CDs, just for a change of perspective.


I really appreciate the breadth and depth of your coverage of traditional music. I don’t think I have ever been disap- pointed in an issue of fRoots, and music I have bought on the strength of reviews (especially those of Colin Irwin) is almost always a delight. My only problem is that I do not have time to read each issue and have a constant backlog!


I don’t consider myself to be a typical


fRoots subscriber as I have little time for the tradition. However, there is usually enough coverage of music which does not reference the tradition as its first port of call to keep me subscribing.


I think more coverage of traditional English folk music would be welcome although you might consider this a retro- grade step.


It’s a bit too UK-orientated. Thanks for everything. I first saw Folk


Roots as it was then in 1989 and immedi- ately subscribed. I was interested in African music then (and still am) but (a) I discovered WOMAD and (b) I rediscovered UK folk music through you.


I feel that fRoots sometimes ignores some of the great acts coming out of the USA as publicised via companies like CD Baby and Signature Sounds.


More music from Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia (a hot bed of fantas- tic music).


It’s been a consistently brilliant maga- zine ever since I first started buying it in 1986. More feature articles on French (Brit- tany, Auvergne etc) and Italian traditional music would be much appreciated (I was introduced to great groups like La Ciapa Rusa, Tre Martelli and Gwerz by fRoots).


As fRoots now has a huge internation- al readership, possibly the magazine could afford to be a little less UK-centric? Other- wise, absolutely no complaints! We eager- ly await every issue and the magazine remains the vital resource to keep us ahead of what’s happening and who’s on the way up in the world music world. Big respect to all.


As an Englishman abroad I find fRoots continually inspiring and have set up a folk blues and beyond club which is always full of many nationalities and styles of music from hammer dulcimer to Northumbrian pipes, from Breton music to African music plus a good sampling of the blues. I am encouraged by the rebirth of acoustic music and the excellence of fRoots. Cest très bien toujours.


I’d like to see a bigger concentration on English/British traditional music instead of world music. At the moment it takes me about 10 minutes to flick through the magazine and find things of interest.


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