business as usual for the most part I reckon

I do have my reasons - health related, humans are very adapatable in my experience

How readers choose to respond to recession is down to their particular situation. From our point of view what we know is that costs rise. For a start our CDs are manufactured in the Euro zone so we're subject to the same increases as your holiday in France might be. Distribution gets more expensive. But by far the most significant fact is that advertising budgets are reduced. There was a time when record companies would support an average album release with full page ads all over the market. That's no longer the case. Having said all that the readership of Word are a valuable group because they are prepared to try new things.

Over and above all this there's the fact that subscription makes more sense to readers (who get their magazine at a lower price), to advertisers (who know that their message reaches people) and to us (because it cuts out the enormous wastage involved in distribution).

and re-buy loads of the stuff I have on CD on vinyl.

but remember, home taping kills music!

It would be better if I saved every last penny and was frugal with my cd purchases.Problem is there is so much cheap stuff around at present it is very difficult to resist and there doesnt appear to be any imminent threat to the job so its very much fingers crossed.
I have seen 2 references and one review recently of a Cat Power ep which is songs left off the Jukebox cd. It is not songs that are available on the deluxe edition of the Jukebox cd but additional songs. Any idea about this because it doesnt yet appear on the Amazon site and I want it recession or no recession.

...unless you have independent means of course. I will still continue to buy CDs, tickets etc as long as I am reasonably confident in the prospects for my job. And music has got cheaper lately. DVD boxed sets seem to be very good VFM too - almost worth cancelling that Sky subscription. (And yes, I've just forked out for the three year Word Magazine sub).

But one thing surprises me - that there's little or no online advertising on this site. Is that a conscious decision? Not that I specifically want to see it if course, but I think in a world (deep voice) of diminishing paper-based advertising revenue, you'd be forgiven for running some discreet online ads.

I suspect the Massive might have strong opinions on ads but given the choice I'd much rather the mag/site/podcast thrived than struggled to maintain the quality we've gotten used to.

Market forces I guess - we're all Thatcher's children nowadays.

Economists joke that the definition of recession is when your neighbour loses his job; the definition of depression is when you lose your job.

If you have a job and are secure in it, then these are great times: low interest rates and massive monthly spending money increases as a result. Meaning plenty for £50 man to splash out on the many bargains out there for just about everything*.

* foreign holidays excluded.

...long before the economic bubble burst; arguably the recession doesn’t make a great deal of difference to me. Recently though, I have been thinking about the things that I spend money on:

The reason I still purchase WORD is because I read everything in it. Factor-in the website, which I include in the price of the magazine, and it represents very good value. The first thing I'll do when I get a job is subscribe. Until then I'm wary of entering into a contract that allows people to dip into my limited savings. This follows an incident that occurred late last year in which a certain High street bank took all my money to insure a car that I don't own.

In 2009 I’ll be cutting back on CDs. Zavvi is on its way out and I refuse to have anything more to do with my local HMV; its off-hand staff, atrophied popular music section and rising prices. In the future I'm planning bi-monthly visits to Fopp in London, where I'll be able to pick-up music cheaper and set myself a budget. I will get the added bonus of a day to wander around the Capital, which is still my favourite thing to do.

If the recession deepens and we end-up with the 21st century equivalent of Hooverville in Hyde Park, I like to think that Mr Ellen, Mr Hepworth and the other members of the WORD massive will give readings from their magazine at Speakers Corner, for the edification of the transient unemployed. For the purposes of identification, I’ll be the one with the knotted handkerchief full of Saint Etienne CDs, dancing in a Bez-like fashion to an interview with Will Self.