MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER RE: SCHEDULE CHANGE

FIVE ISSUES PER YEAR STARTING MARCH 2006

Keeping a small independent magazine alive in these troubled times has become increasingly difficult. It can't have escaped your notice that The Beat is considerably slimmer than it has been in the past. The U.S. economy continues to flounder, and advertising support, so essential to the survival of any printed publication, is atrophying as the music business goes through a perplexing transition into the digital age. The last couple of years have been quite nerve-wracking, and after considerable discussion, we've decided that the best and least painful way to ensure The Beat's continued survival is to cut back on the number of issues published each year. We've been coming to you six times annually ever since 1983: we are going to consolidate the first two issues of the year into one larger issue, to be published in March, that hopefully will produce more revenue and momentum to carry us into the second half of the year. It has always been difficult to get that February issue to bed, working through holidays when most of the world is on vacation, and record releases are usually dormant till spring anyway.

Current subscribers will receive the full number of issues promised when they signed up; beginning in 2006 new subscriptions and renewals will receive five issues per year. We'll keep all the subscription prices, cover price and advertising rates the same for as long as we can, but bear in mind the rates have not gone up since 1999, and the postal rates just increased again.

Thank you all for your continued support and your love of the music, which makes it all worthwhile for us here at The Beat.

CC Smith
Editor/Publisher

Carol Haile Selassie
Advertising and Circulation Director

HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRES

Beat subscribers: you will be pleased to learn that we are changing from the longstanding, confusing method of subscription codes effective in 2006. Instead of the former B, D, F, H, J, L representing the months, the new system will indicate the actual month and year of your last issue. As new subscribers sign up, and renewals come in, the following codes will be assigned:

• 0308 = March 2008
• 0608 = June 2008
• 0808 = August 2008
• 1008 = October 2008
• 1208 = December 2008

and so on, the first two digits are the month, the last two are the year.

Current subscribers with the older alphabetical codes will receive the full number of issues promised when they paid, but new subscribers and renewals in 2006 go onto the new five times a year schedule.

We're sorry if this is confusing. if you do have any questions or concerns please contact circulation director Carol Haile Selassie, at carol4thebeat@aol.com.

For current subscribers with alphabetical codes, here's the Rosetta Stone to decode your expiration date.

The code on your mailing label is the key (e.g., 6B, 7F, 8J, etc). The first number represents the year (i.e., 6 for 2006, 7 for 2007, etc). The letter is the code for the month:

• B for February
• D for April
• F for June
• J for October
• L for December

This tells you the date of the final issue you will receive in your subscription. For example, if your code is 6B, your subscription expires with the Feb. 2006 issue. However, as we have changed the publication schedule to five times a year, you will receive the March 2006 issue instead. Code 6D will also receive March 2006, as well as June 2006 to complete the full number of issues in the subscription period.