Good music will (still) prevail, even though Filter, the Los Angeles-based music magazine and Culture Collide festival promoter and organizer, will cease operation by summer’s end.
Filter co-founders Alan Sartirana and Alan Miller have parted ways to pursue their own endeavors. The latter will continue the Culture Collide brand as an editorial platform and its namesake festival, scheduled for L.A. (Oct. 16-18), San Francisco, and New York. Sartirana will launch Anthemic, an online music and culture publication, in September. The story was originally reported by Buzzbands.la.
In a conversation with Billboard, both Miller and Sartirana agree that the decision to part ways was reached amicably. “All marriages aren’t meant to last forever,” says Miller. “We were fantastic partners for a long period of time and we got to a point where we had different visions.”
Times have changed, he adds. “When we started the magazine, magazines were a real business. You’re talking 12, 15 years later — the landscape is very different.”
And yet, Miller stresses that the magazine ceased operation because of ideological rather than financial reasons. “It’s sad because we’ve had a lot of success, but like a really great athlete going out on a high note, this isn’t a company that’s losing money,” he says. “It’s never been more prosperous.”
As for the staff at Filter, there were no layoffs. Miller says they were allowed to choose which publication they wanted to be a part of. Sartirana, however, informs Billboard that the entire editorial staff joined him at Anthemic; some people from Filter’s agencies went to Culture Collide.
“For us at Anthemic, the goal is to expand upon the legacy Filter started,” he says. “Filter was very much based in indie rock, and we wanted to be able to grow off that base. Everything we did — the tagline ‘Good music will prevail’ — was rooted in music even though we did cover other areas of lifestyle culture.”
Sartirana says Anthemic’s quarterly print publication will launch in September, with the website coming shortly before then. On the agency side, his company is working with Guitar Center on some forthcoming programs, and running all the music festival activations and experiential and multicultural for Toyota, one of their biggest clients. In a follow-up email to Billboard, Sartirana added that Anthemic has formed strategic partnerships with managers Scott Rodger of Quest Management and Ron Laffitte of LMG, giving them access to Arcade Fire, Pharrell, Paul McCartney and Lykke Li, among others.
As for Miller, he has faith that the Culture Collide brand, which he says became a “passion point” for him since it launched five years ago, will continue to do just as well as Filter had been doing. “We have four offices: in San Francisco, New York, L.A., and Chicago,” he says. “I’ve never had more agency clients to work with. We’re doing better than I even would have anticipated.
“For a music consumer, and consumer of culture, now you have two different options of curation,” Miller adds. “More is better.”
