Zenbu Media

Zenbu Media is a vertically-integrated media company located in New York City and founded by Steve Bernstein. While the word zenbu means "everything" in Japanese the company is focused on the music industry sporting the slogan "we live for music." Perhaps zenbu alludes to the fact that the company has a hand in "everything" in the music industry: print, digital, events, and records.

Print

Zenbu Media publishes Relix "Magazine", Global Rhythm "Magazine", "Metal Edge Magazine", and Metal Maniacs "Magazine".

Relix Magazine

Relix "Magazine" was founded in 1974 by Les Kippel as a newsletter focusing on The Grateful Dead. Originally the publication was called "Dead Relix" and was less than twenty pages thick with a hand-drawn black and white cover. By 1978 "Dead Relix" had dropped the word "Dead" from its title and expanded to include articles about the entire Bay Area psychedelic scene. From here the scope of "Relix" expanded to encompass a vast array of musical genres such as reggae and heavy metal. This caused the magazine to lose direction until it rallied behind its original focus on The Grateful Dead. However, "Relix" did not revert entirely to its old ways and managed to also cover various genres of music and even some non-music related issues. Soon after this transformation "Relix" became known as a magazine that broke acts, with many emerging bands making their debut in "Relix" columns such as "Independents Daze” and “On the Edge.”

After the passing of Jerry Garcia in 1995 "Relix" was forced to move away from its coverage of The Grateful Dead. Embracing change, it began to report on jambands and other genres of music not considered as mainstream. In 2000 the magazine was purchased by Steve Bernstein and in 2007 it entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Today, Relix covers a variety of jambands, indie rockers, singer-songwriters, and the live music scene in general. Also, each issue comes with a free CD sampling various up and coming bands.

Global Rhythm Magazine

Global Rhythm was founded in 1992 as "Rhythm Music Monthly" by Kyle Russell. Eventually Alecia Cohen took over as publisher. In late 2005 "Global Rhythm" was acquired by Steve Bernstein who subsequently became publisher. Alecia Cohen remained on staff as associate publisher. The magazine is dedicated to discovering new international sounds, prize substance, and musicians along with in-depth coverage of the cultures these things come from. Each issue of "Global Rhythm" usually has a theme, such as Chinese Jazz, and covers all aspects of the given culture, from film and cuisine to music and tradition. Also, a sample CD comes with each new issue of the magazine.

"Global Rhythm" is the leading magazine in its field and may even be unique.

Metal Edge

"Metal Edge" is the longest running metal magazine in America. It was first published in 1986 and is still in business today. It is published ten times annually and every issue comes with a free CD.

Metal Maniacs

Metal Maniacs covers heavy metal music and was founded in 1989 by Mike Greenhaus and Kathrine Ludwig. The magazine is focused on covering underground metal with an emphasis on the black and death metal genres. It was published by Sterling until Zenbu Media purchased it. "Metal Maniacs" is published ten times annually and every issue comes with a free CD.

Events

Zenbu Media is in charge of two major events: The Jammys and the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival.

The Jammy Awards

The Jammys is an award show geared towards jam bands but also including other live improvisational genres of music.

Green Apple Music Festival

The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival (GAMAF) is America’s largest Earth Day celebration. Founded by music producer and former Wetlands Preserve club owner Peter Shapiro and Relix Magazine, the annual event features an eclectic array of musical performances in venues and rock clubs, as well as large-scale free public outdoor concerts. The Festival’s mission is to raise environmental awareness by combining live musical performances from diverse genres with educational outreach and cultural events suitable for all audiences. The festival is held around Earth Day, April 22, the world’s largest secular holiday observed by over a billion people each year.

In 2006, the event’s first year, the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival took place in New York City. A year later, the celebration had spread across the United States to over 60 live music venues featuring over 200 performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

In 2008, continuing its partnership with Earth Day Network, Green Apple Music & Arts Festival will expand to additional U.S. cities including Miami, Washington D.C., Dallas and Denver.

“By featuring a diverse group of musicians and uniting these venues under one cause, we are able to coordinate an exciting, and unprecedented event. We hope the national footprint of the Festival will help inform as many people as possible on these important issues. And, we hope to keep expanding in future years. I think everyone would agree that Earth Day should be recognized in a big way every year.” -Peter Shapiro, Executive Producer

Relix Records

Relix Records is a boutique record label established to help artists create, market and distribute their music in the US and internationally. Current releases include: Jonah Smith, John Popper Project featuring DJ Logic and Phil Lesh & Friends.

Additionally, Relix Classics, and imprint of Relix Records digitally releases the works of heritage artists such as Jorma Kaukonen, Hot Tuna, Flying Burrito Brothers and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. These are distributed digitally by Egami Media.

Wear Your Music

Wear Your Music began as a project with one primary focus: to make bracelets from strings donated by acclaimed musicians with 100% of the profits going to charities of the artists’ choice. Each one of these bracelets is hand crafted and custom made of the highest quality. To date, over 150 musicians donate their strings to the project. It has been featured in publications such as InStyle, Cosmo Girl, People Magazine, and on a variety of websites such as dailycandy.com, treehugger.com, allaccess.com, VH1.com and many more! Our goal is to raise needed funds for important charities and give fans a way to feel closer than ever before to their favorite musicians. Best of all it is painless for the artist.

After being so well received by the music community and by the fans, WYM decided to expand and offer a lower priced bracelet. Known as the fashion bracelets, these one-size fits all bracelets are also crafted from guitar strings but in seven different colors. Portions of all profits made from the fashion bracelets go towards the MusiCares Foundation. Due to the success of the bracelet programs, WYM is not stopping there! Look for our future projects, which include charms, necklaces, t-shirts and much more. WYM is becoming a brand that represents the intersection of music and fashion. In keeping with our original penchant for projects involving philanthropy and environmental focuses, we want all of our future endeavors to reflect these goals.

Digital

Zenbu Media is in charge of many websites. Each magazine the company publishes has its own web page complete with a free online subscription. The record label, the Jammy Awards, the Greeen Apple Music & Arts Festival, and Wear Your Music also have their own websites. In addition to these websites Zenbu Media runs jambands.com and zendition.com.

Jambands.com

Jambands.com is a website that is designed to meet all possible jam band needs. It has jam band news, products, forums, classifieds, and probably much more.

Zendition.com

Zenbu Media and Techistry, the founders of Zendition, possess over 6o years of combined print media and software development experience. Zendition is a way to transform a magazine or any other similar kind of printed product into an electronic edition that maintains true-to-print look and feel.

References

[http://www.zenbumedia.com/index.html Official Zenbu Site]

[http://www.relix.com/index.php "Relix Magazine"]

[http://www.globalrhythm.net/ "Global Rhythm Magazine"]

[http://www.metaledgemag.com/ "Metal Edge Magazine"]

[http://www.metalmaniacs.com/ "Metal Maniacs Magazine"]

[http://www.relixrecords.com/ Relix Records]

[http://www.jambands.com/ Jambands]

[http://www.jammys.com/ The Jammys Awards]

[http://www.greenapplemusicfestival.com/ Green Apple Festival]

[http://www.zendition.com/ Zendition Digital Magazine Software]

[http://www.wearyourmusic.org/ Wear Your Music]