Today we present one sad thought and one happy thought. In that order.

Here’s the sad one. It’s the end of an era for music fans.

Well, the sort of music fans who read the eclectic, hyperbolic and occasionally life-altering Plan B magazine. ‘Real music fans’, I’d call them, but then I would.

You might prefer ‘elitist tossers’, or ‘windy-haircut buffoons who pretend to like unlistenable Emperor’s New Clothes eyewash’, depending on your outlook. Horses for courses.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter what its core demographic is called. As of this month, the magazine is no more. The June issue, featuring Speech Debelle on the cover, will be its last. Click the photo to read their brief statement, citing this reason:

“The current economic climate, combined with the situation of the music industry – to which, whether we like it or not, the fortunes of a commercial monthly music mag are inextricably linked – has made it ever harder for us to continue producing the magazine the way we want to.”

It’s a worrying time for anyone working in print media, but this news is the gloomiest yet, for me.

I loved Plan B, sometimes as contributor, but mostly as reader. One of my favourite albums of 2004 (Spacesettings by Headset, info fans) only came to my attention because I reviewed it for issue 0, when the mag had just risen out of the ashes of Everett True’s Careless Talk Costs Lives. I honestly don’t think I’d ever have heard it otherwise. My Plan B reviews were all contributed for nought pence, for the love of it, as was the way then. Yet I was the net winner, because the music was truly great.

And while it was never going to be the sellout of WHSmith, Plan B was much loved by its readership. Enthusiasm, knowledge, genuine love of music rather than trends, the privileging of that spark of creativity over things like zeitgeisty fashion sense or age or location or genre… For years, it’s been pretty much the only thing on paper covering the music I love, the way I like it covered.

So, I am now doing a sad face. Boo.

(If you’re a method reader and want to recreate this face, it’s a bit like a tortoise who’s just been told that the lettuce he was saving for a bedtime snack has been stolen.)

But… there’s a glint of sunlight. WE HAVE THE INTERNET!

(Tortoise looks up, hopeful.)

Here’s the happy thought. It might be too expensive to print a niche magazine like Plan B, with its beautiful full colour artwork and defiantly uncommercial slant, but it’s never been cheapier or easier to publish the information and distribute it globally.

(Face of tortoise chomping delightedly on the slice of cucumber it forgot it had saved, but just found under an oak leaf.)

The way things work now, every niche can find its community. And every person, no matter how eccentric or out of step with their local contemporaries, can find their tribe.

It’s a shame to lose the good bits of the old media. But overall I reckon we’re ALL net winners. Even people who aren’t ‘real music fans’, or elitist tossers, like me.

So let’s take a moment to mourn the passing of Plan B, and then raise a toast to the good health of our new media. With or without tortoise mood faces, depending on your outlook. Horses for courses.

Plan B: you’ve been tremendous. Come back electronically soon.

CLICK TO LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: Better Days – Speech Debelle (with Micachu)