Hello there!

Most important thing first: DO THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.

DO IT! NOW! PLEASE :)

• It’s due this Sunday, if you want your answers to be enshrined in print in the Fall ‘24 zine, which will be available to order January 10th.

• This different from the “what do you like about the zine?” survey that I sent out the other week and will be sharing those results below.

• I’m asking you to do a questionnaire about your thoughts on Billy’s latest tour, to include in the data section of the zine.

It asks:

• What shows, if any, did you go to this tour?

• What show is your favorite to listen to?

• What was the best jam of the tour?

• What’s your favorite song off Highway Prayers?

Zine Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give feedback about what they like and don’t like about the zine. It was very educational, and a lot of the kind words you shared made me and the rest of the zine-team smile.

A few key themes stood out on ways we can improve the zine…

Subscription model:

This was the big one. 88% of you said you wanted a subscription model for the zine, so I’ll have that as an option on January 10 when the zine releases.

As part of launching a subscription, we’ll be migrating to a new website that I’m having custom-made for Train Songz.

Other actions being taken:

Bigger font size ✅

• Everything will be at least an 11

More pages ✅

• It’s gonna be 32-36 pages, up from 20 !!!

• (Without taking more sponsors, mind you.)

Less repeat stickers ✅

• Each zine will feature new stickers

Higher-quality paper ✅

• We’re moving from 70# to 80# text paper, which is thicker!

More art ✅

• We’re paying a lot more attention & looking at old punk zines (and literally paying more artists) to spruce up the inside of the zine

Highlighting smaller bluegrass acts ✅

• We’ll feature at least one non-Billy act per zine and moreso in “digital extensions” like playlists and our Train Songz Presents… Radio Show

• I also collected your favorite non-Billy musicians at the moment, and I’ll be sharing that list in due time. I want to do a lot more “wisdom of the crowd” type stuff. I certainly don’t know it all, but I think we can all bring ourselves a bit deeper into the music together.

Basic shipping notifications ✅

• It’s not gonna have fancy and detailed tracking, but I’m paying for a new service that should at least let me know the day your zine was shipped, so we can send an email about that!

Other things I’m working on:

Referral program

I’m also working on a referral program, so you can be rewarded if someone signs up for a zine subscription or buys an individual zine with your referral link or code. Everyone will have one to share, and once that person gets on the train, you’ll get one referral. Say you get three referrals, maybe you’ll get a sticker pack or something. 10: a free shirt you can’t otherwise buy. 100: Conductor feet pics.

Ambassador program @ shows

As the zine’s budget has grown (I will share more about our finances in my next email) it’s become increasingly possible to distribute the zine at shows. In Billy’s upcoming Winter ‘25 run, I’m going to experiment with an ambassador program. I’m still unsure how ambassadors will be selected, but my goal is to:

• Give ambassadors a unique shirt

• Send ambassadors a few hundred zines

• Ambassadors sign some kind of agreement to be kind and coherent while handing out

• As a thank you, I contribute at least $50 toward your ticket to the show

I’d love to grow the zine, and I think posting about the zine in Facebook groups + lot distribution via ambassadors + the referral program could my way there.

If you made it all the way down here, thanks for listening! Like I said, you’ll hear from me one more time before the end of the year, with an update on the zine’s budget and finances going into 2025.

—The Conductor