Hello there!

• First: Did you grab the new issue yet?

• Second: Merchandise will open Friday.

• Third: Below is a detailed examination of our finances, which I spent a lot of time on this weekend.

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Most of the issue 5 work is done, and before I started digging into issue 6, I wanted to catch up on our books and give y’all an update on how the year ahead is looking.

Given our change to a subscription model, I now have the fortune of a mostly guaranteed budget for the rest of the year—so I can forecast with more confidence. (Thank you again to all 648 of you so far who chose to take the leap and subscribe. It’s a huge, huge help to lock in your support for the year.)

To the best of my sophomoric bookkeeping abilities, here’s a financial breakdown and forecast…

Cost & revenue per zine

We basically broke even, before sponsors:

• We spent $10.68 per zine sold

  • $11/per suggestion isn’t random :)

• 980 zines sold for an average of $10.99

• Sponsors gave us $3,500

  • 14 generous sponsors paid $250

  • We kept $3,432.10 after e-payment fees

• So we have profited $3.89 per zine sold

  • Almost fully thanks to sponsors!

Let’s break that down…

We spent $10,458.57 making it

Where’d that money go?

• Artist and contractor labor: $4,302.25

• Printing, stickers, and materials: $4,692.44

• Shipping: $1,378.17

• Online payment fees: $1,356.10

• Supplies: $85.71

Sales have totaled $10,762.41

Where’d that revenue come from?

• $7,367.25 from 648 subscribers

• $3,395.16 from 303 solo sales

We have $3,803.84 left from this zine

What might we do with profits?

• Keep reading…

The year ahead…

Including this last issue, here’s a projection as to how the year might shape up if demand stays steady:

Zines will bring in ~ $58,000

• $44,000 from subscribers and solo sales

  • Assuming $11,000 per zine

    • ~ $8,000 from subscribers

    • ~ $3,000 from solo sales

• $14,000 from sponsors

  • Assuming $3,500 per zine

Zines will cost ~ $48,000

• Assuming ~ $12,000 per zine (to be safe)

We’ll have ~ $10,000 leftover

We have a few ideas how to use this money, and how we’ll continue to use it if zine demand or merchandise sales go up and we make more:

• Necessary business expenses like taxes, accounting fees, and web development

  • Fun!

• Working with bands

  • Idea 1: Make “Tiny Train Concerts” for YouTube; like “Tiny Desk Concerts” but around model trains

  • Idea 2: Record Train Songz Presents… live at a ticketed show

  • Idea 3: Make custom zines for bands that they can sell at their merch tables. This wouldn’t be our quarterly zine, but a zine totally about the band only available at their shows. Almost like a Playbill. We really like this idea, but we have no idea how it would work and what profits (if any) would look like between us and the band. Need to spend a bit of time and money on research & development making prototypes and have some conversations with bands and gauge interest.

• Working with more artists and collaborations

  • I want the zine to be a visual feast!

• Higher-quality zine paper and printing

  • I want it to stay this thick but also sit flat…we’re developing some prototypes!

• Paying BMFSDB’s monthly web hosting fees

  • We’re doing this already!

  • Join us for live setlists during shows

  • Did you make an account yet?

• More donations to Bluegrass-related causes

  • We gave $4,033 last year

• Print Media Dealer Volunteer Program

  • This is my biggest none-zine priority this year. I feel very fortunate that so many of you want to hand out free zines on lot and at shows, and I’m taking it upon myself (and some help from friends) to build out a legitimate, structured volunteering program. I’m also giving all volunteers not-for-sale shirts, printed on Comfort Colors. Quality matters! If you’d like to volunteer for upcoming Winter Tour shows, you can do so here. If you’d like to do so during Spring Tour, which is anything after Nashville, I’ll send that out later. Feeling grateful to have this kind of demand for helping get the zine out in the world is an understatement!

IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS OF HOW YOU’D LIKE TO SEE US SPEND THIS MONEY, WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

• Email conductor@trainsongz.net (that’s me)

What about merchandise sales?

I have no idea how things will sell this year, and if y’all will want to buy more merchandise, or you’re good with the tee or hat you might’ve bought last year. I don’t expect or intend to get you on an endless cycle of clothing purchases, so I’m not working this into projections…

I price items at $10/profit per piece, and will continue communicating that buying merchandise is effectively a $10 contribution to the zine. So you pay for the cost of the shirt, printing, shipping, and handling + $10 towards Train Songz.

We’re lucky the zine pays for itself and anything we make from merchandise is ultimately a cherry on top. I feel no pressure to raise prices from more than $10 profit per item, nor do I need to increase sales by selling to 22,000 Instagram followers instead of just zine purchasers.

So I will continue doing merchandise for those who want to give a little extra to the zine and help us invest in the future, but to be safe I’m not relying or counting on merchandise revenue to operate Train Songz.

What about taxes?

IDK. Good question. I’m doing Train Songz’s 2024 taxes right now, with the help of a friendly CPA who subscribes to the zine and reached out to offer his services. (Thanks, Ross!)

Based on how 2024 goes, I’ll be able to better project 2025…

My promise to you: Train Songz will not commit tax fraud. We also won’t pay a dollar more than we owe.

Mr. Conductor, are you making any money?

At this point in the game, Promontory Paul and I are not taking home anything from the zine.

We are using what we deem reasonable from our annual revenue to attend a few Billy weekends per year. I believe that is what they call in the industry a “tax write-off” as necessary “research” towards creating the best zine possible for you! Capeesh?

Last year we went to Nashville and Worcester with the help of zine money, and this year we’re at least going to Nashville. (Unfortunately for us, we don’t sell enough zines to go to Australia or New Zealand. If we did, it’s really the zine’s bank account that would be going down under…)

On free zines

With 648 subscription sales, we’ve been able to give out subscriptions to all 63 people who applied for a free one this year.

• We’re doing 1 for every 10 sold, so that’s actually almost perfect. Neat! We have one more to give out. Once we hit 650, we’ll have two. Math!

With 303 solo sales, we’ve been able to give out a free issue 5 to all eight people who asked for one.

• We have 23 more to give, if you know anyone who might want one. Send them this!

If you made it down here, you’re a real sicko for the details and I appreciate you. Thanks for following along, and I hope these sort of updates earn your trust that we are dedicated to building a long-lasting community and a self-sustaining zine business.

P.S. we’re looking to incorporate live song times into our setlist database, so if you or a friend could help us scrape live song times off nugs, please reach out to conductor@trainsongz.net!

Thanks as always,

The Conductor