7 votes

Memories of "Launch" magazine

Hi,

I'm asking here in the hopes that someone remembers a music magazine of yore. "Launch" magazine was mailed to subscribers on a CD in the mid-90s. It was like... Pitchfork, edgy but with broader appeal. I honestly don't remember much of the music that was on there. It had these sort of Dilbert-esqe comics about being a programmer in a start up. Back then, I had no idea, really, what they were talking about, but I thought the comics were hilarious.

Anyway, I can't find it anymore. The name is really generic and nothing I find in searches seems to resemble what I remember. It might be the kind of thing that someone like a Tildes user who browses the music group might remember. Does anyone have a memory of this? Seeing those little comics again would be nostalgia gold.

5 comments

  1. [5]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    I had never heard of it before, but is this it? https://www.discogs.com/label/803832-Launch-Magazine It shows all the magazine covers, and song lists, but not the comics, unfortunately. Ebay has a...

    I had never heard of it before, but is this it?

    A magazine that promoted alternative music, started in the mid-1990s as a print magazine with accompaying CD-ROM, eventually became solely a CD-ROM magazine. Was absorbed into Yahoo Music in the early 2000s.

    https://www.discogs.com/label/803832-Launch-Magazine

    It shows all the magazine covers, and song lists, but not the comics, unfortunately.

    Ebay has a bunch of listings for individual and lots of issues, if you want to buy copies for yourself:
    https://www.ebay.com/sch/267/i.html?isRefine=false&_nkw=launch+cd+magazine


    The Yahoo! Music's Wikipedia page has a bunch more info on Launch Media:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Music

    And WayBackMachine has some snapshots of the original site:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20000501000000*/launch.com
    (music site starts in 1999, before that it's an IT company)

    3 votes
    1. [4]
      carsonc
      Link Parent
      That's it! This was a big deal for me during that time, but now it's like it never existed. Getting these CDs is going to be wonderful. Thank you!

      That's it! This was a big deal for me during that time, but now it's like it never existed. Getting these CDs is going to be wonderful. Thank you!

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        kfwyre
        Link Parent
        archive.org might be a help as well! Also, seeing these unlocked a memory for me that was long forgotten. I'm pretty sure I had one or two of these -- the Soundgarden one in particular looks very...

        archive.org might be a help as well!

        Also, seeing these unlocked a memory for me that was long forgotten. I'm pretty sure I had one or two of these -- the Soundgarden one in particular looks very familiar. I'm certain I didn't have a subscription, but I might have picked up one or two off of a newsstand or at a garage sale or something. Unfortunately I don't remember anything about them.

        2 votes
        1. cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          I checked WayBackMachine for the launch.com site, and linked that above, but I never even thought to look in their media archive... and unsurprisingly, there is a collection for the magazine:...

          I checked WayBackMachine for the launch.com site, and linked that above, but I never even thought to look in their media archive... and unsurprisingly, there is a collection for the magazine:
          https://archive.org/details/launchcdmagazine

          It doesn't look like they have scans of the full magazines though, only pics of the accompanying CDs. :(

          A generic search shows there are a few other listings not in that collection though:
          https://archive.org/search?query=launch+magazine

          Including at least one scan of a few pages from a magazine issue:
          https://archive.org/details/launch-14-retail-cdrom

          And a rip of one of the CDs:
          https://archive.org/details/launch_issue_8_cdrom/

          So if you go digging through archive.org you may be able to find more, @carsonc

          2 votes
      2. cfabbro
        Link Parent
        YVW! Glad to help. :)

        YVW! Glad to help. :)

        1 vote