Hello there.

This email is only going to subscribers and friends of the zine, so I want to take this chance in the smaller group to thank you for your continued support of all things Train Songz, from sharing a meme with a friend to contributing $33–99 annually in support of our anachronistic print media habit. Your support means the world, and we’re gonna work hard to keep making this thing better and better for you. Hell yeah, brothers and sisters!

Also, reminder to vote on the charts for the next issue. Let us know your favorite song + album right now, to spread the sounds you love to others. Put us on to some new sh*t!

Alright, now to the meat of the electronic mail:

“Train Songz 1K” merchandise is available for pre-order through Friday

• Link here for a t-shirt, crop top, five-panel hat, regular hat, and enamel pin.

• This stuff celebrates the first 1K zine subscribers. Order this if you’d like to represent your spot among the first 1K. Again, I can’t thank you enough for being part of this.

• We’re switching the house t-shirt blank at Train Songz to Everybody World, which made from 100% recycled cotton and all knitting, cutting, sewing and finishing is done in fair-wage factories in Los Angeles. (I’ve personally had size inconsistency issues lately with Comfort Colors, and these are much better shirts. They cost about $5 more, though I’m keeping shirts priced at $30 for front prints and $35 for front-and-back prints.

  • T-shirts printed by @ForestCityPress, keeping your money in the community.

• Keeping on this thread about threads, hats are printed on AS Colour blanks, which are also a big step up from the typical Otto blank. We’re going for quality at regular prices around here, as a thank you for being a subscriber. I’m cool making slightly less profit and keeping prices reasonable + transparent.

  • Hats embroidered by @first_train_we_can_ride, keeping your money in the community.

• We also have some odds and ends available: a foil poster from the last issue + our last 3 bags of Northbound “Conductor’s Choice” coffee. (The beans from long-time sponsor Northbound Coffee Roasters sold well, so we’ll have a medium roast in the next zine store.)

• I promise 1K is the only five-digit round number we’re gonna celebrate. Making the zine is not an ego-quest for the biggest number possible, but I do think finding one thousand paying print media subscribers in 2025 based on an Instagram meme page that came from a Trey Songz pun made in the pit while Billy Strings wore an engineer cap while trains passed by the stage in Bridgeport, Connecticut is worthy of celebration. So we’re celebrating like good capitalists with some commemorative, limited-edition merchandise… Boo-yah.

• The store will be open through this upcoming Friday, July 11th. I will send one more reminder then, and then we’re closed up.

PLEASE submit your vote for the Train Songz Charts right now!

• Link here

• Taking a few minutes to tell us your favorite Billy show from 2025 Spring tour and your favorite song + album right now will make the zine better for everyone. We will print your response in the Train Songz Charts section. Thank you for casting your vote for the nichest charts in the music industry!

• Please do it!

• Please!

• I’m begging you!

• Thanks.

Text 405-225-6629

• This is the Train Songz Anonymous Tip Hotline. I’m looking for missed connections from shows and things you overheard in the crowd over the last few months. Please send ‘em in! Our favorite responses will be printed and thus immortalized in zine-storing shoeboxes until the end times.

• Go ahead and save 405-225-6629 in your phone as “The Conductor” or “Train Songz” or whatever you call me, and get in the habit of texting zine submissions.

One more classified spot available

• If you or your business would like to sponsor the zine, we have one more (of 10) $100 classified slots available. We are totally sold out of quarter-page art sponsorships, so this is the last way to get involved with this issue. Holler if you’re interested in sponsoring this issue or a future one!

• We would not be “financially afloat” without sponsorships, because each issue costs a little over $11 per subscriber (the price we sell the zine at) to produce.

• So, thanks to our sponsors for making up for my questionable business practices!

Hope you have a great week, and please vote on the charts.

–The Conductor